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WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 
After the original Chandos portrait. 



lEngltslj Classics — Star Serirs 



-MACBETH 



BY 

/ 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 



EDITED FOR SCHOOL USE 
BY 

WILBUR LUCIUS CROSS 

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE SHEFFIELD 
SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY 




GLOBE SCHOOL BOOK COMPANY 

NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 



Library of COBgr0t% 
Offlce cf tbt 

MAY 1 8 1900 

Boglittr of Copyrl(litft 



•ECOND CQPj/.C^t>y 






61695 

Copyright, 1900, by 
Globe School Book Company. 



MANHATTAN PRESS 

474 W. BROADWAY 

NEW YORK 



PREFACE 

This edition of Macbeth has been made for use in the 
hi^ii or the preparatory school, though it contains — so far 
as I am aware — nothing disrespectful to the intelligence 
of the ordinary college student. The play has been so well 
edited by others, that one new in the field finds the harvest 
already reaped and but little left to the gleaner. Indeed, 
I lay claim to only a few broken ears. 

On the other hand, the book aims to present old matter 
in a new manner. If we are to have Macbeth in the schools, 
why not edit it with some regard to pedagogic principles ? 
Why, for example, should an introduction open with the 
conventional discussion of the date of composition? For 
determining this date there is really nothing that goes far, 
except certain allusions in the play itself. And surely no 
student is able to understand them while Macbeth is to him 
merely a name. Again, why should remarks on the versifi- 
cation come after the text of the play ? If any remarks 
are advisable, they should be of aid to the student from the 
beginning. I have, therefore, placed the section on blank- 
verse in the introduction, and that on the date of the first 
performance near the end of the volume. So throughout, I 
think, the topics are in logical order. 

The editor of Shakespeare is in danger of doing too much. 
The work of the dramatist is of infinitely more importance 
than anything that can be said about it. For this reason 
I have kept the text free from the entanglements of foot- 
notes recording the various emendations of critics. In 
making the text, I have followed in the main the Globe 



iv PREFACE 

edition, into which are incor^^orated, for the most part, the 
best readings. And yet, wherever it seemed to me that the 
Globe could be improved, I have ventured, within narrow 
limits, to make changes, occasionally in a word or in the 
arrangement of the lines, and especially in the punctuation. 
After the student has finished the introduction, which may 
help him in a small way to make real to his imagination the 
Elizabethan age, its superstitions, its playhouses, and the 
central figure in its literature, he should read carefully 
the part of the tragedy assigned to him, paying no attention 
whatever to the editor. To the notes he may afterward 
turn for help on obsolete words and allusions. And by the 
questions following the notes to each scene he may test for 
himself the thoroughness of his reading. These questions, 
or similar ones, should also, in my opinion, be made the 
basis of written exercises. Notes can never do what we 
might wish. In writing them, I have invariably shunned 
parallel passages and usually etymology, on the ground that 
digressions of this kind take the young student too far from 
the text in hand. I have rather sought to convey Shake- 
speare's meaning by paraphrasing difficult passages and by 
suggesting synonyms for obsolete and uncommon words and 
expressions; well knowing, however, that these substitu- 
tions have little of the suggestiveness of the author's own 
diction. They will have served their jxirpose if they indi- 
cate the purport of a sentence now become obscure. In 
selecting topics for discussion after the notes and questions, 
I have been influenced by the prevailing tendency to studies 
in structure and style which is so apparent in recent 
manuals and in the examination papers set for the student 
entering college. 

Certain other discussions which have become a part of 
many recent editions of Macbeth are disregarded. This 
plan has been followed on purpose. It is generally agreed, 
for example, that some passages of the play were not 



PREFACE V 

written by Shakespeare. But just what these passages 
are the critics ^ have not yet determined. For myself, I 
have no doubt that the speeches of Hecate and a few lines 
connected with them (III. v. ; IV. i. 39-43 and 125-132) are 
by another hand, probably Middleton's. But textual criti- 
cism, it has seemed to me, should have little space in a 
book of this kind. Accordingly, only in the most trouble- 
some passages has attention been called to proposed emen- 
dations. For them the instructor may go to Furness's 
New Variorum Edition. 

After some consideration, the i3ublishers have decided to 
insert a map of Scotland, on which are marked the places 
mentioned in the play. It is very nearly historical ; but 
it could not be made quite so, for the reason that the Scot- 
land of Shakespeare's Macbeth is not precisely the Scotland 
of the eleventh century. Surely the study of literature is 
not the study of geography. The two studies, however, 
touch at points. The student is more interested in a story 
than he otherwise would be, if he can fix in his imagina- 
tion its setting not only in time, but also in place. And 
the nearer the teacher can bring him, by whatever aid, 
to a complete realization of a piece of literature, the more 
abiding is the possession. 

The young student who is accustomed to regard every 
letter in his own name as eternally fixed for him by his 
parents, may be disturbed by the apparent liberties that the 
critics quoted in this book have taken with the word 
'• Shakespeare." The surname has been found capable of 
four thousand variations.^ As applied to the dramatist's 
father, it was spelled by the officials of Stratford, who were 
not over-nice in their orthography, in sixteen different 
ways ; and the dramatist himself, in his signature to legal 
documents, vacillated between " Shakspere," " Shakspeare," 

1 See "Shakespeare Manual," F. G. Fleay, Part IT, Ch. X. 

2 "A Life of William Shakespeare," Sidney Lee, Ch. XVIIL 



vi PREFACE 

and " Shakespeare." The latter, however, is the form 
adopted by the poet in his dedications to Venus and Adonis 
and The Eajye of Lucrece^ — the only works that were surely 
published with his sanction. The best authorized literary 
spelling is consequently Shakespeare. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction : 

I. Shakespeare's Life and Work 

II. The Drama and the Theater 

III. The Witches 

IV. The Verse . 



IX 

xiv 
xvii 

XX 



Bibliography . . . . . 
MACBETH 

Notes and Questions 

Topics for Study : 

I. The Plot . . . . 
II. The Characters . 

III. Shakespeare and Holinshed 

IV. Date of Composition . 

Test Questions . . . • - 



XXVI 



1 

83 



128 
132 

132 
140 

143 



vu 



. INTRODUCTION 

I. SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE AND WORK 

Because so little is known about Shakespeare, people 
often think that he was not much esteemed by his contempo- 
raries; they even maintain that he could not have written 
the great plays ascribed to him. Lord Bacon, they say, 
was the author. It should be remembered that the curi- 
osity to know all about literary men dates only from the 
time of Dr. Samuel Johnson and Boswell's life of him 
(1791). Certainly before Addison, a man of letters, how- 
ever distinguished he might be, was not likely to interest 
the public, unless he were connected with Church or State. 
Our first biographer is really Izaak Walton, who came a 
generation later than Shakespeare. We may lament that 
he did not give us a life of the great dramatist; but natu- 
rally enough he was more attracted to men like Dr. John 
Donne and Sir Henry Wotton. In the absence, then, of 
any contemporary life of Shakespeare, our only recourse is 
to a few old records, and to the anecdotes which came down 
to the wits of the Restoration (1660), and were passed along 
by them to the critics of the eighteenth century. 

William Shakespeare was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in 
April, 1564. He was baptized, as any one may still see in 
the parish register of Stratford, on the 26th; and it is a 
tradition that he was born three days before. His exact 
birthplace is thought to have been a house in Henley Street. 
Some fifty years ago the house was restored and converted 
into a public museum. A sketch of it, as it now appears, 
is shown on the opposite page. The poet's father, John 



X INTRODUCTION 

Shakespeare, evidently started out in life with the sole aim 
of amassing a fortune and winning the honors that wealth 
brings. He engaged in trade and in many other ventures, 
and rose rapidly, becoming chief alderman and high bailiff, 
or mayor, of Stratford. But in course of time he was in- 
volved in debts and lost all his positions of trust. About 
the dramatist's mother, Mary Arden, whom John Shake- 
speare married in 1557, the records are scant. She was, 
however, of a good family, and she inherited considerable 
property, — a house and forty-odd acres of land, besides an 
interest in two other dwellings and their appurtenances. 
These estates soon dwindled away, probably because of John 
Shakespeare's bad management in trade. There were born 
to John and Mary Shakespeare eight children, of whom 
only five reached maturity, — William, Gilbert, Eichard, 
Edmund, and Joan. 

William, with his brothers, was undoubtedly educated at 
the Stratford Grammar School. Just what he studied there 
is uncertain; but judging from what was taught in other 
schools of the same type, it is safe to say that he read in 
several Latin authors, — Ovid, Terence, Plautus, Seneca, 
and Vergil. He may, too, have learned a little Greek. 
Somewhere and somehow he also acquired, then or at a later 
period, a very good knowledge of French and a smattering 
of Italian. In his early plays he was fond of displaying 
the schoolboy's knowledge of Latin; for Henry the Fifth, he 
wrote a brilliant scene throughout in French, an exercise 
that would perplex many a college student ; and the plots of 
some of his plays (for example, a part of The Merchant of 
Venice) seem to have been taken directly from the Italian. 
Shakespeare was not learned, but his education in the 
schools was respectable. Beyond this, he was a boy who 
kept his eyes open to all about him, — to men, sport, and 
nature. Of this his plays are the proof. How clearly he 
saw through Shallow and Dogberry — the justice and the con- 



SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE AND WORK xi 

stable of Stratford! And the same penetration he carried 
with him to the more varied life of London, and then on 
into history and romance. His language is rich in similes 
and metaphors taken from coursing, angling, and falconry, 
from the habits of horses, dogs, and birds; and tlian his 
there are in our literature no lovelier descriptions of quiet 
scenery. Nature spoke to him as she rarely speaks to her 
children. 

When in his nineteenth year, he did a very thoughtless 
thing: he married a woman who was eight years older than 
himself, and likely without the knowledge of his parents. 
Her name was, with little doubt, Anne Hathaway. She 
lived in a thatched cottage at Shottery, a hamlet distant 
from Stratford about a mile as you go through the fields. 
Though considerably altered, the dwelling still stands as a 
type of the Elizabethan farmhouse occupied by the humbler 
folk. It has long been a place of pilgrimage for tourists, 
to whom is shown the old chimney-seat where, it is said, 
William and Anne were wont to sit and gossip. Whether 
it be true or not, there is no harm in imagining such a 
scene. 

Becoming by 1585 the father of three children, the young 
Shakespeare probably saw the seriousness of his marriage. 
Soon after this, perhaps in 1586, he went to London. At 
any rate, there is an allusion to him, in 1592, as actor and 
playwright. The London theaters were then outside the 
city, and people rode to them on horseback. According to 
a tradition, which is likely true, Shakespeare's first occu- 
pation was to hold the horses of these visitors. He would 
next gain entrance to the theater, as prompter or actor in 
some subordinate role, and then he would push his way 
upward till he became an actor of repute, author, and 
manager. 

Shakespeare's career, which thus began sometime before 
1592, extended to about 1611; and, except for occasional 



xii INTRODUCTION 

visits to Stratford, he seems to have remained in London 
during all this time. As shareholder in the Globe Theater, 
as actor and playwright, he gained what was then held to 
be a fortune; he bought property in London and Stratford, 
placed his father in good circumstances, and purchased the 
largest house in his native place, to which, by 1611 or 1612, 
he apparently returned for good. He died at Stratford on 
April 23, 1616, and was buried in the Church of the Holy 
Trinity, an interior view of which fronts this page. His 
contemporaries spoke of him not only as an excellent actor 
and the greatest of English dramatists, but also as upright 
in all his dealings and "of an open and free nature." 

His industry was prodigious. He composed "sugred" 
sonnets, and two poems of exquisite beauty, — Venus and 
Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece; and he either wrote 
throughout, or remodeled, or refurbished, thirty-seven plays, 
— thirty-eight, if we count The Tivo Noble Kinsmen, which 
he apparently touched up in places. Criticism has employed 
itself in trying to discover just when each of these plays 
was written, so as to form some notion of the stages whereby 
Shakespeare's genius unfolded. The details of these inves- 
tigations need not concern us here. We may say, however, 
in passing, that, beginning with gayety and ridicule, Shake- 
speare soon reached the dark and sinister in human life ; and 
then, near the close of .his career, he returned for a brief 
period to the lighter themes of his young manhood. We 
shall, I think, get the best view of his work by treating it 
according to subject. This was the method of his first 
editors. They divided the plays into comedies, histories, 
and tragedies. A comedy, as Shakespeare regarded it, is 
a play in which, after many perplexities, all comes out well 
at the end, with the marriage of the hero and the heroine. 
A history is founded on striking historical events. A 
tragedy ends in blood. The comedies, a-sparkle with wit, 
humor, and fantastic phrases, frank and generous in tone, 





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Shakespeare's tomb in the church at Stratford-on-Avon. 
" Good frend for lesvs sake forbeare 
To digg the dvst encloased heare 
Bleste be y« man yt spares thes stones 
And cvrst be he yt moves my bones." 



SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE AND WORK xili 

are the most delightful pieces Shakespeare wrote, and every- 
body should read them all. Some of the best are Much Ado 
About Nothing, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Winter's 
Tale, and The Tempest. Eight of the histories deal with 
well-nigh continuous reigns of the English kings, beginning 
with Richard the Second and coming down through the 
Fourth, the Fifth, and the Sixth Henry to Richard the 
Third. Besides this group, there are King John and Henry 
the Eighth, in which Shakespeare, as it were, takes a look 
backward and a look forward. After all these histories, 
except the last, Shakespeare wrote three great Roman 
pieces, — Julius Ccesar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleo- 
patra. While the histories are frequently tragic in their 
conclusions, Shakespeare sought to relieve most of them by 
comic scenes, with the result that the history is sometimes 
overshadowed by the comedy. This is particularly true of 
the two plays on Henry the Fourth, in which appears Jack 
Falstaff, Shakespeare's supreme achievement in humor. But 
the Shakespeare who awakens our pity and dread for the 
weaknesses of our common nature, is most completely 
revealed in four of his tragedies, — Hamlet, Othello, Lear, 
and Macbeth. They were written between the ages of 
thirty-eight and forty-two, when his genius was in full 
maturity. No other man has ever probed our life, and the 
motives that sway us to action, quite so deeply as Shake- 
speare in these plays. And when we consider together all 
that he left behind him, we are most impressed by the ease 
with which he turned from theme to theme. Others have 
written tragedies or comedies which the world will never 
let die. But Shakespeare excels in both kinds. He is, 
perhaps we speak vaguely, at once Sophocles and Aris- 
tophanes, or Racine and Moliere. Certainly no one else 
has ever taken up in his work so much of life. 



XIV INTRODUCTION 



II. THE DRAMA AND THE THEATER 

All these plays were produced for the London theaters. 
Many of them no doubt were turned off hurriedly, much as 
the editor of to-day writes sheet after sheet, without thought 
of their literary value. To the theater people went to get 
the news, to hear comments on current events, and to be 
amused, just as we now pick up the newspaper for similar 
purposes. 

For a long time the drama had been a national passion. 
Indeed, plays in England date from the Norman Conquest. 
They were at that remote period liturgical ; that is, they 
were a part of the liturgy, or service, of the Church. Every- 
body knows how dramatic the ritual of the Church of Rome 
is still. Back in the twelfth century it was made particu- 
larly so at Christmas and at Easter. Then the clergy repre- 
sented as actually taking place before the congregation the 
incidents connected with the birth of Christ and His resur- 
rection as they are related in the New Testament. During 
the next two centuries these little dramas were detached 
from the liturgy, passing from the church to the church- 
yard, and then to the street and the public square, where 
they were performed upon movable stages, called pageants. 
Under these new conditions, monks and clerks could no 
longer be the actors, and their places were taken by the 
members of the guilds and by strolling players. The sub- 
ject-matter was also much enlarged. Long series of plays, 
appropriately called mysteries or miracles, were written, 
covering the most salient incidents in Scripture, from the 
creation to the day of doom. These old plays, though now 
rather dull reading, contain, nevertheless, a good deal that 
is tragic. And when you read an entire group of them you 
are impressed by their wide scope, by a magnitude well- 
nigh epic. They were, too, sometimes comic, as in the 



thp: drama and the theater xv^ 

conversations between Noah and his wife. And besides this, 
the common people seem to have been much amused by the 
devil, who appeared on the stage in person ; though he is 
to us a. rather sorry and coarse figure. 

Erom this kind of drama, popular attention was largely 
drawn to the morality and the interlude, which had a 
wide vogue in the sixteenth century. In these new plays 
the characters were groups of virtues and vices striving to 
win Mankind to good and to evil. At first, the interest was 
divided between the moral and the comic element in this 
combat; but, in course of time, the comic came to predomi- 
nate. Indeed, the typical vice, with his dagger of lath 
and ludicrous dress and manners, is the harbinger of the 
Shakespearean fool. 

This native course of the drama, which was moving on 
through tragedy and comedy, from the characters of Scrip- 
ture, through the virtues and the vices, to real men, was 
arrested and turned into a new channel just after the middle 
of the sixteenth century. At that time began to appear 
translations and adaptations of Latin comedy and tragedy. 
And in the decade between 1580 and 1590 there came to the 
front several notable playwrights, brilliant and daring young 
men, who, educated at the universities, were able to trans- 
form the English drama. Among them were George Peele, 
Robert Greene, and Christopher Marlowe. Their work was 
further developed and completed by Shakespeare. 

The drama, after breaking away from the Church and the 
guilds, had, by the sixteenth century, fallen for the most 
part into the hands of strolling players, who went about 
from place to place performing where they could, — in halls, 
open squares, and inn-yards. But when Shakespeare arrived 
in London, he found two theaters, which were situated in 
the parish of Shoreditch, in the fields : one was called The 
Theatre, and the other The Curtain. During the next few 
years others rapidly sprang up, among which were The Rose, 



XVI INTRODUCTION 

The Sican, Blackfriars, and The Globe. In the last-named 
theater — which was built on the right bank of the Thames, 
and could be reached from the city either by crossing London 
bridge or by water — Shakespeare was, as we have before 
observed, a shareholder, drawing from it perhaps four hun- 
dred pounds a year. Of these theaters considerable is 
known ; for in some cases there still exist notes about them 
made by visitors, and even the details of the contracts for 
their building. The main part was open to the sky, only 
the boxes, or the " rooms," being invariably covered. There 
was, however, for the stage a roof, called "the heavens," 
which seems to have been movable. 

One of the most curious features of the London theater 
was the stage, which projected into the pit, or " the yard," as 
it was still called. The stage was nearly bare of scenery, a 
change of place being indicated by a sign hung out, or by 
some slight modification of the furniture. The Elizabethan 
audience was made up of all sorts and conditions. People 
of the lower class from the streets of London stood in the 
pit, which was without seats. Men of higher rank would 
occupy the boxes, which were reached by stairways from 
the pit. In the boxes, too, might be women in mask; but 
women of respectability, unless disguised, would keep away. 
In the rear of the stage there was a gallery over the dress- 
ing room of the actors. This was for persons of distinction 
who visited the theater, or it might serve for an upper 
stage where one was required, as in Romeo and Juliet. 
Even upon the stage spectators were permitted to sit and 
remark about the play as it was progressing. Here, at the 
sides, were placed stools for young gentlemen who wished 
to display their fine clothing and their wit and to see the 
ghost of Banquo near at hand. This strange license is 
partly accounted for from the fact that the roles of women 
were taken by men. Lady Macbeth, for example, would be 
a man in woman's dress. All the stage arrangements were 




The Globe Theatre, London. 



THE WITCHES xyii 

primitive. We may infer, for instance, from a contempo- 
rary account of a performance of Macbeth, that the borders 
of the heath in the third scene were represented by a few 
small trees brought upon the stage. Through this impro- 
vised wood, Banquo and Macbeth entered on horses, which 
were probably hobby-horses,^ made of pasteboard and bound 
about their bodies. 

And yet for aU this crudeness, there was, I think, full 
compensation. The Elizabethan dramatist addressed the 
imagination and kept it awake. Painted scenery and foot- 
lights have since invaded the theater, and literature has 
made her exit. 

III. THE WITCHES 

From the Middle Ages onward, all classes -believed that 
there were two powerful hierarchies of spirits contending 
for supremacy in the world. On the one hand were God 
and the hosts of Heaven, whose earthly counterpart was the 
Church, with her long line of ministers from the pope and 
cardinals down to the humblest parish priest. On the other 
hand were Satan and innumerable demons, Avhose instru- 
ments were magicians, warlocks, and witches. These 
demons of the higher rank were the old divinities of Greek 
and Teutonic mythology, whom the saints of the new 
religion had driven from Olympus and Asgard. 

By Shakespeare's time this mediseval conception of the 
way in which good and evil work in men's minds had lost 
much of its dignity. The learned magicians had degenerated 
into quack doctors; and superstition had come to regard 
witches as the most mischievous of Satan's agents. A 
contemporary writer thus described them : — 

" [They] are women which be commonly old, lame, 

1 For the hobby-horse, see Illustrations of Shakspeare, by F. Douce, 
p. 598. ^, 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles, ... in 
whose drousie minds the divell hath goten a fine seat. . . . 
They are leane and deformed, shewing melancholic in their 
faces, to the horror of all that see them." 

Of the power imputed to them, the same writer added : — 

"These be they that raise haile, tempests, and hurtful 
weather; as lightening, thunder, etc. . . . These can 
throwe children into waters, as they walke with their 
mothers, and not be scene. These can make horsses kicke, 
till they cast the riders. These can passe from place to 
place in the aire invisible. . . . These can bring trembling 
to the hands, and strike terror into the minds of them that 
apprehend them. These can manifest unto others, things 
hidden and lost, and foreshew things to come; and see them 
as though they were present. These can alter men's minds 
to inordinate love or hate. These can kill whom they list 
with lightening and thunder." 

The witch, it was held, entered into some sort of compact 
with Satan. Appearing to her in person, dressed all in 
black, he would promise her something on which she had 
set her heart, as revenge against her neighbor, on condition 
that she should abjure Christianity and swear allegiance to 
himself. But the gifts of Satan were unsatisfying and illu- 
sory; for there was always some defect in them, as the 
Macbeths discovered when they had gained the throne of 
Scotland. 

Just as the Church had its masses and festivals, cele- 
brated by day in magnificent cathedrals, so at midnight, in 
distant fields or on remote heaths, the servants of Satan met 
their lord and worshiped him in wild carnival. The spot, 
however fair it might have been, never bloomed again ; for, 
like the heath in Macbeth, it was blasted by the feet of 
demons. This feast was called the witches' sabbath, for 
it often took place just after midnight of Friday, that is, in 
the first hours of the Jewish Sabbath. Here congregated 



THE WITCHES xix 

witches by thousands, riding through the air on broom- 
sticks, or borne on the backs of demons who, for the occa- 
sion, had transformed themselves into animals. After 
prostrating themselves before Satan seated on his throne, 
and after relating the evil deeds they had committed since 
the last Sabbath, they chose, or had assigned to them, their 
attending spirits, called "familiars," and departed at the 
crowing of the cock to work more mischief throughout the 
world. The first scene in Macbeth is the conclusion of such 
a Sabbath ; and the mad rites about the cauldron in the first 
scene of the fourth act is an incident — and not the most 
loathsome — of the witches' nocturnal orgies. 

That there were witches who thus assembled at dead of 
night to plan evil was implicitly believed, not only by the 
common folk, but, for the most part, by men of learning. 
The superstition was questioned by no English writer (so 
far as I know) before 1584. In that year a Kentish gen- 
tleman, named Reginald Scot, published a remarkable book 
— from the third and fourth chapters of which we quoted 
above — entitled The Discoverie of Witchcraft. Though he 
cast no doubt on the hierarchies of good and bad spirits, he 
maintained that the so-called witches were poor deluded old 
women wholly innocent of any dealing with Satan. This 
was the beginning of a lively controversy over witchcraft. 
A few years later, James the Sixth of Scotland, while 
returning from Denmark with his bride, was nearly wrecked 
by storms, which, it was gravely related, were caused by 
witches, who followed his ship in sieves, making merry and 
drinking wine on the way. Having this personal grudge 
against witches, and being steeped in superstition from 
childhood, James now wrote, as a counterblast to Scot's 
book, a pamphlet on demonology (1597), which is a monu- 
ment in the history of intolerance. In 1603 this James 
became king of England. Shakespeare, like other men of 
the time, could not fail to take interest in the controversy 



XX IXTKODUCTION 

going on about him. At least, he saw how witchcraft could 
be effectively treated as a motive in the drama; and he 
certainly managed to convey his own views of the 
superstition. 

Test Shakespeare's knowledge at any point, and he will 
be found master of his subject. Every detail of Macbeth is 
in exact accord with the current beliefs. But for his pur- 
poses, Shakespeare selected his incidents and elevated them 
to the realm of poetry. The relation between the Avitches 
and their familiars and Satan he does not elaborate, for that 
was all supplied by his audience. It is, perhaps, noticeable 
that there is no open compact between Macbeth and the 
powers of evil. Instead of this, Shakespeare represents 
Macbeth as in moral harmony with them. The witches 
know that he is in a mood favorable to evil solicitations, 
and they set about their work that they may have some 
notable deed to relate at the next Sabbath. By prophecies 
and equivocations they lead him on and on in the way he 
has chosen, to the throne and to ruin. The witches, which 
were in popular superstition uncanny old women, Shake- 
speare so heightens and spiritualizes that they come to 
stand for that power in the world working man's moral 
destruction. And finally, he so subtilizes his material, that 
the air-drawn dagger, the ghost, and the witches' cauldron 
become but the hallucination of a guilty conscience. Such 
was the psychological insight with which Shakespeare 
wrote a play that loses none of its truth to liuman nature 
from the fact that it is embellished by superstitions long 
since of the past. 

IV. THE VERSE 

Macbeth, like all of Shakespeare's later plays, is written 
mostly in blank verse, that is, in verse without rhyme. 
The typical line consists of five measures, each measure 



THE VERSE XXI 

having two syllables. A stress of the voice — which may 
be strong or weak, as sense and music require — comes 
regularly on the second syllable in each measure. The 
following is the typical line : — 

Whose lior | rid im | age doth | unfix | my hair (I, iii, 135). 

No real poet would ever write continuously in this way, 
for the monotony would be intolerable. To the poet, 
language is, as it were, an instrument on which he plays for 
many effects. In the drama especially, he seeks to approach, 
within certain limits, the naturalness of the best speech as 
he feels it should be uttered by his characters in a great 
variety of situations. In rhetorical passages, the meter 
will be fairly uniform ; in quiet narrative and description, 
it will be graceful; in passionate scenes, it will be broken 
by emotion. Thus Shakespeare always suits the action to 
the word and the word to the action. 

To this end he often shifts the stress from the second to 
the first syllable. This shifting may occur anywhere. It 
is, however, most common in the first measure or after a 
pause. The following are examples : — 

This cas | tie hath | a plea j sant seat ; | the air 

Nimbly \ and sweet ] ly re | commends | itself (I, vi, 1-2). 

What is I amiss ? | 

You are | and do | not know 't (II, iii, 78). 

The clou I dy mes | senger | turns me | his back (III, vi, 41), 

And yet | I would | not sleep: | merci \ ful powers (II, i, 7). 

Still greater ease of movement is attained by an extra 
SYLLABLE at the end of a line or before a pause at the close 
of the second or the third measure. The line last quoted 
comes near to having such a syllable. Better examples are : — 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

yf ^ ^ ^ ^ 

Give me | the dag | gtrs : \ the sleep | ing and | the dead (II, ii, 53). 

Unto I our gen | tie sens | es. \ This guest | of sum | mer (I, vi, 3). 

Moreover, a line may contain six measures, thus becom- 
ing what is technically called an Alexandrine. This is 
rather common when the line is divided between two 
characters. For example : — 

Put on I their in ] struments. | Receive | what cheer | you may 

(IV, iii, 239). 
y' j' ^ 

I take I my leave | at once. | 

Sirrah, | your fa | ther's dead (IV, ii, 30). 

On the other hand, a line sometimes has only four 
MEASURES, especially if it is broken : — 

To th' 1 self I same tune | and words. | Who's here ? (I, iii, 88). 

As thou I didst leave | it. \ 

Doubtful I it stood (I, ii, 7). 

Still shorter lines are also employed by Shakespeare, 
especially in rapid dialogue and at the beginning and at the 
end of speeches. For example : — 

This is I a sor | ry sight (II, ii, 20). 
Shall harm | Macbeth (IV, i, 81). 

Any measure may contain three syllables. But it 
will be observed that the extra syllable is exceedingly light. 
See I, ii, 46; I, vii, 22; II, iii, 98; and the famous line : — 

The mul | titu | dinous seas \ incar | nadine (II, ii, 62). 

On the other hand, measures of one syllable are not 
uncommon. In these instances there is usually a pause at 

1 All contractions in this discussion of Shakespeare's verse appear 
in the First Folio. 



THE VERSE xxiii 

the end of the measure, or a monosyllable is so prolonged 
as to become a dissyllable. See here, I, vi, 6; Come, 1, v, 
38 ; Fare, IV, iii, 111; and 

'Gainst my | captiv | ity. [ Hail^ \ brave friend (I, ii, 5). 

In Shakespeare's time many words which we now usually 
pronounce in full were contracted. Most of these con- 
tractions are shown in the text of this edition. Several, 
however, are not indicated. For example, the vowel of the 
was often elided or slurred when the article immediately 
follows or immediately precedes a vowel with which it 
may be united in pronunciation. We have the authority of 
the First Folio for scores of contractions like these : — ■ 

And wish | tli' estate | o' th' world | were now | undone (V, v, 50). 

The vowels marked as contracted may be lightly 
TOUCHED. The measure is then to be regarded as trisyl- 
labic. So one may sometimes choose betweeen I am and 
Vm and between / have and I^ve. See, for example, I, iii, 
133; and I, iv, 20. 

Moreover, many words in Shakespeare's day were indif- 
ferently PRONOUNCED in either of two ways. Among 
them are entrance or enterance, o'emembrance or rememherance, 
conference or confrence, children or childeren, murdering or 
murdring, slaughterous or slaughtrous, monstrous or monster- 
ous, enemy or eyimy, misery or misry, spirits or sprites, 
whether or wher. Devil and evils were also apparently mono- 
syllabic, as in IV, iii, 56-57. Observe : — 

That croaks | the fa | tal en | t[e]rance | of Dun | can (I, v, 37). 

Final ion may be dissyllabic, especially at the end of a 
line : — 

Which smoked | with blood | y ex | ecu | tion (I, ii, 18). 

The same word, however, is monosyllabic in 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

Whose ex | ecu | tion takes 1 your en | emj off (III, i, 104). 

Final eel, where not marked in the text as contracted, is 
sometimes pronounced : — 

Their drench | ed na | tures lie | as in | a death (I, vii, 68). 

The NORMAL ACCENT of scvcral words found in Macbeth 
as shifted since Shakespeare's time. Observe chdstise, 
I, V, 25; bdboon's, IV, i, 37; cdnjure, IV, i, 50; dbscure, II, 
iii, 40; and the following: — 

Stop up th' access and passage to remorse (I, v, 42). 
Authdriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself! (Ill, iv, 66). 
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness (IV, iii, 93). 
To be his purveyor: but he rides well (I, vi, 22). 

The accented syllable of proper names is easily deter- 
mined from the requirements of the verse. Hecate, written 
Hecat, by Shakespeare's first editors, is always dissyllabic. 
Dunsindne is thus accented on the first and the last syllable, 
except in IV, i, 93, where it is Dunsin'ane. Gldmis is usu- 
ally dissyllabic, and in every instance it may be so regarded. 

The witch scenes are written in short lines, each line 
having, for the most part, four stressed syllables. The 
meter is mainly trochaic, usually truncated, that is, lacking 
a final unstressed syllable. But interspersed with trochaic 
lines are pure iambics ; and the speeches of Hecate, in III, 
V, and in IV, i, are iambic throughout. The first two lines 
of the play run thus : — 

When shall | we three | meet a | gain (trochaic). 
In thun 1 der, light | ning, or | in rain? (iambic). 

E.HYME. The speeches of the witches are almost inva- 
riably in rhyming couplets. In other parts of the play 
there occur in all about a hundred rhymes. Note the use 



THE VERSE XXV 

of them, especially at the close of the various scenes, and 
in moralizing passages. 

Any analysis of Shakespeare's verse is necessarily inade- 
quate; for there are so many subtle variations which can 
only be felt. The student will notice that the stress varies 
much in degree. In some measures it is exceedingly light, 
and in others the voice dwells upon both syllables. Kead 
aloud the lines I have quoted with this statement in mind. 
For the light stress observe the first and third measures in 
this line : — 

He hath | a wis | dom that | doth guide | his valour (III, i, 52). 

Now observe the stress on both syllables in the second, 
fourth, and fifth measures in this line : — 

What hath | quench'd them | hath given | me fire. | Hark ! 
Peace! (II, ii, 2). 

As an exercise, make a study of the meter in one or two 
passages: for example, Act I, sc. v, lines 37-55, and 
Act I, sc. vi, lines 1-10. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I APPEND FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS A PAR- 
TIAL LIST OF THE BOOKS USED IN PREPARING 
THIS VOLUME 

For the Text 

The works of Shakespeare (Globe edition), W. G. Clark and 
W. A. Wright. 

Reprint of the First Folio, Lionel Booth. 
Reproduction of the First Folio, Howard Staunton. 

For the Notes 

Macbeth : the editions by H. H. Furness, Clark and Wright, 
Charles Knight, W. J. Rolfe, K. Deighton, E. K. Chambers, J. M. 
Manly, and L. A. Sherman. 

Nares' Glossary, ed. Halliwell and Wright. 

Shakespeare Lexicon, Alexander Schmidt. • 

Transactions of the New Shakspere Society. 

Cruces Shakespearianae, B. G. Kinnear. 

The Diary of Master William Silence (a study of Shakespeare 
and of Elizabethan sport), the Rt. Hon. D. H. Madden. 

The Witch, Thomas Middle ton. 

For the Verse 

Chapters on English Metre, J. B. Mayor. 
A Shakespearian Grammar, E. A. Abbott. 
Early English Pronunciation, Part III, A. J. Ellis. 
Englische Metrik, Vol. II, J. Schipper. 

For Shakespeare's Life 

A Life of Shakespeare, Sidney Lee. 

Shakspere, a Study in Elizabethan Literature, Barrett Wendell. 

Shakspere (a primer), Edward Dowden. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY xxvii 



For the Drama and the Theater 

A History of English Dramatic Literature (revised edition, 
1899), A. W. Ward. 

Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama, J. M. Manly. 
Shakespeare Manual, F. G. Fleay. 
Annals of the Stage, J. Payne Collier. 
Early London Theatres, T. F. Ordish. 



For the Structure and the Characters 

The Drama, its Law and its Technique, Elisabeth Woodbridge. 
Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist, R. G. Moulton. 
Notes and Lectures upon Shakspeare, S. T. Coleridge. 

For the Sources 

Holinshed's Chronicles, the reprint of 1807-1808. 
Shakspere's Holinshed, W. G. Boswell-Stone. 

For Witchcraft 

The Discoverie of Witchcraft, Reginald Scott ; reprint edited by 
Brinsley Nicholson, London, 1886. 

Elizabethan Demonology, T. A. Spalding. 

Essay on Witchcraft, J. R. Lowell. 

Witch, Warlock, and Magician, W. H. Davenport Adams. 




R.D.SERVOSS, N.r. 



MACBETH 



^ noblemen of Scotland. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 
Duncan, king of Scotland. 

MALCOLM, I ^.^ ^^^^^ 
DONALBAIN, ) 

Macbeth, j ^^g^^ls of the king's army. 

Banquo, ) 

Macduff, ^ 

Lennox, 

Ross, 

Menteith, 

Angus, 

Caithness, J 

Fleance, son to Banquo. 

SiWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the 

English forces. 
Young SnvARD, his son. 
Seyton, an officer attending on Macbeth. 
Boy, son to Macduff. 
An English Doctor. 
A Scotch Doctor. 
A Sergeant. 
A Porter. 
An Old Man. 
Lady Macbeth. 
Lady IVLvcduff. 

Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. 
Hecate. 
Three Witches. 
Apparitions. 

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, and 
Messengers. 

Scene — Scotla7id: England. 



MACBETH 

ACT I 

Scene I. A dese^'t place 
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again 
In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? 

Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly's done, 
AVhen the battle's lost and won. 
5 Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 

First Witch. Where the place ? 

Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. 

Tliird Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 

First Witch. I come, Graymalkin. 

Sec. Witch. Paddock calls. 

Third Witch. Anon ! 

10 All. Fair is foul, and foul is fair : 

Hover through the fog and filthy air. [^Exeunt. 



ScEXE 11. A camp near Forres 1 



Alarum ivithin. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, 
Lennox, ivith Attendants, meeting a bleeding Sergeant. 

Dun. What bloody man is that ? He can report. 
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt 
The newest state. 

3fcd. This is the sergeant 

Who like a good and hariiy soldier fought 
B ' 3 



4 MACBETH 

5 'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend I 
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 
As thou didst leave it. 

Ser. Doubtful it stood; 

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together 
And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald — 

10 AVorthy to be a rebel, for to that 
The multiplying villanies of nature 
Do swarm upon him — from the western isles 
Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied ; 
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 

15 Show'd like a rebel's whore : but all's too weak : 
For brave Macbeth — w^ell he deserves that name — 
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel. 
Which smoked with bloody execution. 
Like valour's minion carved out his passage 

20 Till he faced the slave ; 

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 
Till he unseam 'd him from the nave to the chaps. 
And fix'd his head upon our battlements. 
Ditn. valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman I 

25 Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 
Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break. 
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come 
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : 
No sooner justice had with valour arni'd 

30 Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels. 
But the Norweyan lord surveying vantage, 
AVith furbish'd arms and new supplies of men 
Began a fresh assault. 

Dun. Dismay 'd not this 

Our ca]3tains, Macbeth and Banquo ? 

Ser. Yes ; 

35 As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 
If I say sooth, I must report they were 



ACT I. SCENE II -^ 5 

As cannons overcharged with double cracks, so they 
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe : 
Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 
40 Or memorize another Golgotha, 
I cannot tell — 
But I am faint, my gashes cry for help. 

Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; 
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. 

[Exit Sergeant, attended. 
Who comes here ? 

Enter Ross. 

45 Mai The worthy thane of Ross. 

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So should 
he look 
That seems to speak things strange. 

Moss. God save the king ! 

Dun. Whence camest thou, worthy thane ? 
Boss. From Eife, great king; 

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky 
50 And fan our people cold. Norway himself, 
With terrible numbers, 
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 
The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict; 
Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, 
55 Confronted him with self-comparisons. 

Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm. 
Curbing his lavish spirit : and, to conclude. 
The victory fell on us. 

Du7i. Great happiness ! 

Boss. That now 
GO Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ; 
Nor would we deign him burial of his men 
Till he disbursed at Saint Colme's inch ji. C^4u.^^^Ji^^ 
Ten thousand dollars t^Tour general use. -^ ') '>»'*'*'^ 



6 MACBETH 

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 
65 Our bosom interest : go pronounce his present death, 
And with his former title greet Macbeth. 
Ross. I'll see it done. 
Dun. AVhat he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won. 

\_Exeuai. 

ScEXE III. A heath near Forres 

Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister ? 

Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 

TJiird Witch, Sister, where thou ? 

First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap, 
And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd: — "Give me 
5 quoth I : 

" Aroint thee, witch ! " the rump-fed ronyon cries. 
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger : 
But in a sieve I'll thither sail. 
And, like a rat without a tail, 
10 I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do. 

Sec. Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 

First Witch. Thou'rt kind. 

Third Witch. And I another. 

First Witch. I myself have all the other, 
15 And the very ports they blow. 
All the quarters that they know 
I' the shipman's card. 
I will drain him dry as hay : 
Sleep shall neither night nor day 
20 Hang upon his pent-house lid ; 
He shall live a man forbid : 
Weary se'nnights nine times nine 
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine: 
Though his bark cannot be lost, 



ACT I. SCENE III 7 

25 Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 
Look what I have. 

Sec. Witch. Show me, show me. 
First Witch. Here I have a pilot's thumb, 
Wreck'd as homeward he did come. \_Drum within. 

30 Third Witch. A drum, a drum ! 
Macbeth doth come. 

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, 
Posters of the sea and land, 
Thus do go about, about : 
35 Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine 
And thrice again, to make up nine. 
Peace ! the charm's wound up. 

Enter Macbeth and Baxquo. 

Mach. So foul and fair a day 1 have not seen. 
Ban. How far is't call'd to Forres ? What are these 
40 So wither'd and so wild in their attire. 

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, 
And yet are on't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
That man may question? You seem to understand me, 
By each at once her choppy finger laying 
45 Upon her skinny lips : you should be women. 
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 
That you are so. 

Macb. Speak, if you can : what are you ? 

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of 

Glamis ! 
Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane of 

Cawdor ! 
Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king here- 
50 after ! 

Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear 
Things that do sound so fair ? I' the name of truth. 



8 MACBETH 

Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
55 You greet wdth present grace and great prediction 
Of noble having and of royal hope, 
That he seems rapt withal : to me you speak not. 
If you can look into the seeds of time, 
And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
60 Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 
Your favours nor your hate. 
First Witch. Hail! 
Sec. Witch. Hail! 
Third Witch. Hail! 
65 First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 
Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 
Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: 
So all hail, Macbeth and Ban quo ! 

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! 
70 Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more : 
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis ; 
But how of Cawdor ? the thane of Cawdor lives, 
A prosperous gentleman ; and to be king 
Stands not within the prospect of belief, 
75 No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 
You owe this strange intelligence ? or why 
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 
With such prophetic greeting ? Speak, I charge you. 

[Witches vcinish. 
Bcin. The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, 
80 And these are of them. AVhither are they vanish'd ? 
Macb. Into the air ; and what seem'd corporal melted 
As breath into the wind. AVould they had stay'd ! 

Ban. Were such things here as we do speak about ? 
Or have we eaten on the insane root 
85 That takes the reason prisoner ? 

Mach. Your children shall be kings. 



ACT I. SCENE III 9 

Ban. You shall be king 

Mach. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ? 
Ban. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here ? 

Enter Ross and Angus. 

Ross. The king hath happily received, Macbeth, 
90 The news of thy success ; and when he reads 
Thy personal venture in the rebels' light, 
His wonders and his praises do contend . 
Which should be thine or his : silenced with that, 
In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day, 
95 He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 
Strange images of death. As thick as hail 
Came post with post ; and every one did bear 
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, 
And pour'd them down before him. 
100 Ang. We are sent 

To give thee from our royal master thanks ; 
Only to herald thee into his sight. 
Not pay thee. 

Ross. And, for an earnest of a greater honour, 
105 He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor : 
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! 
For it is thine. 

Ban, What, can the devil speak true ? 

Mach. The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you dress me 
In borrow'd robes ? 

Ang. Who was the thane lives yet ; 

no But under heavy judgement bears that life 

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined 
With those of Norway, or did line the rebel 
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; 



10 MACBETH 

115 But treasons capital, confess'd and proved, 

Have overthrown him. 

Mach. \_Askle~\ Glamis, and thane of Cawdor ! 

The greatest is behind. \_To Ross and Angus] Thanks for 
your pains. 

\_To Ban.'] Do you not hope your chiklren shall be kings, 

When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 

Promised no less to them ? 
120 Ban. That, trusted home, 

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown. 

Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange : 

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm. 

The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
125 Win us ^vith honest trifles, to betray's 

In deepest consequence. 

Cousins, a word, I pray you. 

Mach. [Afiide] Two truths are told. 

As hapx^y prologues to the swelling act / 

Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. — 
130 \Aside'] This supernatural soliciting 

Cannot be ill, cannot be good : if ill. 

Why hath it given me earnest of success, 

Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Caw^dor : 

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion 
135 Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair 

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 

Against the use of nature ? Present fears 

Are less than horrible imaginings : 

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 
140 Shakes so my single state of man that function 

Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 

But what is not. 

Ban. Look, how^ our partner's rapt. 

Mach. \_Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance 
may crown me, 

Without my stir. 



ACT I. SCENE IV 11 

Ban. New honours come upon him, 

145 Like our strange garments, cleave not to their moukl 
But with the aid of use. 

Macb. \_Aside] Come Avhat come may, 

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 

Macb. Give me your favour : my dull brain was wrought 
150 With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 
Are register'd where every day I turn 
The leaf to read them. Let us toward thh king'. 
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, 
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak 
Our free hearts each to other. 
155 Ban. Very gladly. 

Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. \_Exeunt. 



ScEXE IV. Forres. The palace 

Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Dona$bain, Lennox, 

and Attendants. 

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not 
Those in commission yet return'd? 

Mai. My liege. 

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
With one that saw him die : who did report 
5 That very frankly he confess'd his treasons. 
Implored your highness' pardon and set forth 
A deep repentance : nothing in his- life 
Became him like the leaving it ; he died 
As one that had been studied in his death 
10 To throw away the dearest thing he owed, 
As 'twere a careless trifle. 

Dun. There's no art 

To find the mind's construction in the face : 



12 MACBETH 

He was a gentleman on whom I built 
An absolute trust. — 



Enter Macbeth, Baxquo, Ross, and Angus. 

worthiest cousin ! 
15 The sin of my ingratitude even now 

Was heavy on me : thou art so far before, 

That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 

To overtake" thee. Would thou hadst less deserved. 

That the proportion both of thanks and payment 
20 Might have been mine ! only I have left to say. 

More is thy due than more than all can pay. 
Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe. 

In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part 

Is to receive our duties ; and our duties 
25 Are to your throne and state children and servants, 

Which do but what they should, by doing every thing 

Safe toward your love and honour. 

Dun. Welcome hither : 

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour 

To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, 
SO That hast no less deserved, nor must be known 

No less to have done so, let me infold thee 

And hold thee to my heart. 

Ban. There if I grow, 

The harvest is your own. 

Dun. My plenteous joys. 

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
35 In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes. 

And you whose places are the nearest, know 

We will establish our estate upon 
" Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 

The Prince of Cumberland ; which honour must 
40 Kot unaccompanied invest him only, 



ACT I. SCENE V l3 

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
And bind us further to you. 

Mach. The rest is labour, which is not used for you : 
45 I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful 
The hearing of my wife with your approach ; 
So humbly take my leave. 

Dun. My worthy Cawdor ! 

Macb. \_Aside~\ The Prince of Cumberland! that is a 
step 
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 
50 For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires ; 
Let not light see my black and deep desires : 
The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be, 
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. \_Ed:it. 

Dun. True, w^orthy Banquo; he is full so valiant, 
55 And in his commendations I am fed ; 
It is a banquet to me. Let's after him, 
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : 
It is a peerless kinsman. \_Flourish. Exeunt. 

Scene V. Inverness. Macbeth's castle 

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. 

Lady M. " They met me in the day of success : and I 
have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in 
them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to 
question them further, they made themselves air, into which 

5 they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, 
came missives from the king, who all-hailed me ' Thane of 
Cawdor ; ' by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted 
me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with ' Hail, 
king that shalt be ! ' This have I thought good to deliver 

10 thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not 



14 MACBETH 

lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what great- 
ness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." 
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor ; and shalt be 
What thou art promised : yet do I fear thy nature ; 
15 It is too full o' the milk of human kindness 

To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; 
" ^ Art not without ambition, but without 
-4 ■ The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, 
That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 
20 And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou'ldst have, great 
Glamis, 
That which cries " Thus thou must do, if thou have it " ; 
And that which rather thou dost fear to do 
Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, 
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear ; 
25 And chastise with the valour of my tongue 
All that impedes thee from the golden round. 
Which fate and meta^^hysical aid doth seem 
To have thee crown'd withal. 

Enter a Messenger. 

What is your tidings ? 
Mess. The king comes here to-night. 
Lady M. Thou'rt mad to say it : 

30 Is not thy master with him ? who, were't so. 
Would have inform'd for preparation. 

Mess. So please you, it is true : our thane is coming : 
One of my fellows had the speed of him. 
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
Than would make up his message. 
35 Lady M. Give him tending ; 

He brings great news. \_Exit Messenger. 

The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 




Look like the innocent flower, 

But be the serpent under 't. He that 's coming 

Must be provided for." 



ACT I. SCENE V 15 

Under my battlements. Come, you spirits 

That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, 
40 And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full 

Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood ; 

Stop up the access and passage to remorse. 

That no compunctious visitings of nature 

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
45 The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 

And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, 

Wherever in your sightless substances 

You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick night, - 

And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 
50 That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, 

To cry " Hold, hold ! " 

Enter Macbeth. 

Great Glamis ! worthy CaAvdor ! 
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! 
Thy letters have transported me beyond 
55 This ignorant present, and I feel now 
The future in the instant. 

Macb. My dearest love, 

Duncan comes here to-night. 

Lady M. And when goes hence ? 

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes. 
Lady M. 0, never 

Shall sun that morrow see ! 
60 Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 
Look like the time ; bear welcome in your eye, 
Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent flower, 
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming 
65 Must be provided for : and you shall ^Dut 



16 MACBETH 

This night's great business into my dispatch ; 
Which shall to all our nights and days to come 
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 

Macb. We will speak further. 

Lady M. Only look up clear ; 

70 To alter favour ever is to fear : 

Leave all the rest to me. [Exeiuit. 

Scene VI. Before Macbeth's castle 

Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donal- 
BAiN, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus, and 

Attendants. 

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
Unto our gentle senses. 

Ban. This guest of summer. 

The temple-haunting martlet, does approve, 
5 By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath 
Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze. 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed, 
The air is delicate. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

10 Dun. See, see, our honour'd hostess ! 

r The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 
\ Which still ^ve thank as love. Herein I teach you 
) How you shall bid God 'ild us for your pains, 
/ And thank us for your trouble. 

Lady M. All our service, 

15 Li every point twice done and then done double, 
Were poor and single business to contend 



ACT I. SCENE VII 17 

Against those honours deep and broad wherewith 

Your majesty loads our house : for those of old, 

And the late dignities heap'd up to them, 

We rest your hermits. 
20 Dan. Where's the thane of Cawdor ? 

We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose 

To be his purveyor : but he rides well ; 

And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him 

To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, 

We are your guests to-night. 
25 Lady M. Your servants ever 

Have theirs, themselves and what is theirs, in compt, 

To make their audit at your highness' pleasure. 

Still to return your own. 

Duyi. Give me your hand ; 

Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 
30 And shall continue our graces towards him. 

By your leave, hostess. [Exeunt. 

Scp:ne VII. Macbeth's castle 

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers Servants 
with dishes and service, and 'pass over the stage. Thoi 
enter Macbeth. 

Macb. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well 
It were done quickly : if the assassination 
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 
With his surcease success ; that but this blow 

5 Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, 
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases 
We still have judgement here ; that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 

10 To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 



18 MACBETH 

Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice 

To our own lips. He's here in double trust ; 

First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 

Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 
15 Who should against his murderer shut the door, 

Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 

So clear in his great office, that his virtues 

Will plead like angels, trumpet-ton gued, against 
20 The deep damnation of his taking-off ; 

And pity, like a naked new-born babe. 

Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, horsed 

Upon the sightless couriers of the air. 

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
25 That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur r^ ^-^ 

! To prick the sides of my intent, but only .-J 

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself <A * 

And falls on the other. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

How now ! what news ? 
Lady M. He has almost supp'd : why have you left the 

chamber ? 
Macb. Hath he ask'd for me ? 
30 Lady M. Know you not he has ? 

Mach. We will proceed no further in this business : 
He hath honour'd me of late ; and I have bought 
Golden opinions from all sorts of people. 
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, 
Not cast aside so soon. 
35 Lady M. Was the hope drunk 

AVherein you dress'd yourself ? hath it slept since ? 
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
At what it did so freely ? From this time 
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 



ACT I. SCENE VII 19 

40 To be tlie same in thine own act and valour 

As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 

Which thou esteem 'st the ornament of life, 

And live a coward in thine own esteem, 

Letting " I dare not " wait upon " I would," 

Like the poor cat i' the adage ? 
45 Macb. Prithee, peace : y^ 

I dare do all that may become a man ; ( 

Who dares do more is none. 

Lady M. What beast was't, then, 

That made you break this enterprise to me ? 

When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
50 And, to be more than what you were, you would 

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 

Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 

They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 

Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 
55 How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me : 

I would, while it was smiling in my face. 

Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, 

And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you 

Have done to this. 
:|L Mach. If we should fail ? 

* Lady M. We fail ! 

60 But screw your courage to the sticking-place. 

And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 

Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 

Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 

Will I with wine and wassail so convince, '^ - ^-u^.-^- 

05 That memory, the warder of the brain. 

Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason ^ . 

A limbec only : when in swinish sleep -^ ■' ^^^^ 

Their drenched natures lie as in a death. 

What cannot you and I perform upon 
70 The unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon 



20 MACBETH 

His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt 
Of our great quell ? 

Mad). Bring forth men children only ; 

For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 
75 When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two 
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers, 
That they have done't ? 

Lady M. Who dares receive it other, 

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar 
Upon his death ? 

Macb. I am settled, and bend up 

80 Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. 
Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 

[Exeunt. 



ACT II. SCENE I 21 



ACT II 

Scene I. Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle 
Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before him. 

Ban. How goes the night, boy ? 

Fie. The moon is down ; I have not heard the clock. 

Ban. And she goes down at twelve. 

Fie. I tak't, 'tis later, sir. 

Ban. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven ; 
5 Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. 
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
And yet I would not sleep : merciful powers, 
Eestrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
Gives way to in repose ! 

Enter M-ACBBXHfXtnaa Servant tvith a torch. 

^^^^-^'"^ Give me my sword. 

10 WhoVthere ? 

Macb. A friend. 

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest ? The king's a-bed : 
* He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 
Sent forth great largess to your offices. 
15 This diamond he greets your wife w^ithal. 

By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 
In m^easureless content. 

Macb. Being unprepared. 

Our will became the servant to defect ; 
Which else should free have wrought. 

Ban. All's well. 



22 MACBETH 

20 I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : 

To you they have show'd some truth. 

Macb. I think not of them : 

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 

We woukl spend it in some w^ords upon that business, 

If you woukl grant the time. 

Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 

25 Macb. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, 

It shall make honour for you. 

Ban. So I lose none 

In seeking to augment it, but still keep 

My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 

I shall be counsell'd. 

Macb. Good repose the while ! 

30 Ban. Thanks, sir : the like to you ! 

\_Exennt Baxquo and Fleance. 
Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready. 

She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. [Exit Servant. 

Is this a dagger which I see before me. 

The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch thee. 
35 I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 

To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 

A dagger of the mind, a false creation, 

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? 
4a I see thee yet, in form as palpable 

As this which now I draw. 

Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going ; 

And such an instrument I was to use. 

Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, 
45 Or else worth all the rest ; I see thee still. 

And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood. 

Which was not so before. There's no such thing : 

It is the bloody business which informs 

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world 



ACT II. SCENE II 23 

50 Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 

The curtain'd sleep ; witchcraft celebrates 

Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder, 

Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, 

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 
55 With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth. 

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout. 

And take the present horror from the time, 
60 Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives : 

Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 

[A bell rings. 

I go, and it is done ; the bell invites me. 

Hear it not, Duncan ; for it is a knell 

That summons thee to heaven or to hell. [^Exit. 



Scene II. The same 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. That which hath made them drunk hath made 
me bold ; 
What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark ! 

Peace ! 
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, 
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : 
5 The doors are open ; and the surfeited grooms 
Do ]nock their charge with snores : I have drugg'd their 

possets, 
That death and nature do contend about them. 
Whether they live or die. 

Mach. [ Within'] Who's there ? what, ho ! 

Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked. 



24 MACBETH 

10 And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed 
Confounds us. Hark I I laid their daggers ready ; 
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 
My father as he slept, I had done't. 

Enter Macbeth. 

My husband I 
Mach. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise? 
15 Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 
Did not you speak ? 

Mach. When ? 

Lady M. Now. 

Mach. As 1 descended ? 

Lady M. Ay. 
Mach. Hark ! 
Who lies i' the second chamber ? 

Lady M. Donalbain. 

20 Mach. This is a sorry sight. \_LooMng on his hands. 

Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 
Mach. There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried 
" Murder ! " 
That they did wake each other : I stood and heard them : 
But they did say their prayers, and address'd them 
Again to sleep. 
25 Lady M. There are two lodged together. 

Mach. One cried " God bless us I " and " Amen " the other. 
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands. 
Listening their fear, I could not say "' Amen," 
When they did say " God bless us ! " 
30 Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. 

Mach. But wherefore could I not pronounce " Amen " ? 
I had most need of blessing, and " Amen " 
Stuck in my throat. 

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought 

After these ways ; so, it will make us mad. 



I 



ACT II. SCENE II 25 

35 Macb. Methought I heard a voice cry " Sleep no more ! 

Macbeth does murder sleep " — the innocent sleep, 

Sleep that knits up the ravelPd sleave of care, 

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, 

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 

Chief nourisher in life's feast, — 
40 Lady M. What do you mean ? 

Macb. Still it cried '• Sleep no more ! " to all the house : 

" Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor 

Shall sleep no more ; Macbeth shall sleep no more." 

Lady M. ^Vho was it that thus cried ? AVhy, worthy 
thane, 
45 You do unbend your noble strength, to think 

So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 

And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 

Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 

They must lie there : go carry them ; and smear 

The sleepy grooms with blood. 
50 Macb. I'll go no more : 

I am afraid to think what T have done ; 

Look on't again I dare not. 

Lady M. Infirm of purpose ! 

Give me the daggers : the sleeping and the dead 

Are but as pictures : 'tis the eye of childhood 
55 That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 

I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal ; 

For it must seem their guilt. [_Exit. Knocking ivithin. 

Macb. Whence is that knocking ? 

How is't with me, when every noise appals me ? 

What hands are here ? ha ! they pluck out mine eyes. 
60 Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 

Clean from my hand ? No, this my hand will rather 

The multitudinous seas incarnadine. 
Making the green one red. 



26 MACBETH 

Re-enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. My hands are of your colour ; but I shame 
65 To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear a 
knocking 
At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : 
A little water clears us of this deed : 
How easy is it, then ! Your constancy 
Hath left you unattended. [Knocking ivitliin.~\ Hark! 
more knocking. 
70 Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, 
And show us to be watchers. Be not lost 
So poorly in your thoughts. 

Mach. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself. 

[Knocking ivithin. 
Wake Duncan with thy knocking ! I would thou couldst ! 

[Exeunt. 

Scene III. The same 

Knocking ivithin. Enter a Porter. 

Porter. Here's a knocking indeed ! If a man were porter 
of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking 
within.] Knock, knock, knock ! Who's there, i' the name 
of Beelzebub ? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on th' 

5 expectation of plenty : come in time ; have napkins enow 
about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking ivithin.] 
Knock, knock ! Who's there, in the other devil's name ? 
Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the 
scales against either scale ; who committed treason enough 

10 for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven : 0, come 
in, equivocator. [Knocking tcithin.] Knock, knock, knock ! 
Who's there ? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, 
for stealing out of a French hose : come in, tailor ; here you 
may roast your goose. [Knocking ivithin.] Knock, knock j 



ACT II. SCENE III 27 

15 never at quiet ! What are you ? But this place is too cohi 
for helh I'll devil-porter it no further : I had thought to 
have let in some of all professions that go the primrose 
way to the everlasting bonfire. \_Knocking witliin.~\ Anon, 
anon ! I pray you, remember the porter. [ Opens the gate. 

Enter Macduff and Lennox. 

20 Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 
That you do lie so late ? 

Port. 'Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock. 
Macd. Is thy master stirring ? 

Enter Macbeth. 

Our knocking has awaked him ; here he comes. 

Len. Good morrow, noble sir. 
25 Mach. Good morrow, both. 

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane ? 

Mach. Not yet. 

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him : 
I have almost slipp'd the hour. 

Macb. I'll bring you to him. 

Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you ; 
30 But yet 'tis one. 

Macb. The labour we delight in physics pain. 
This is the door. 

Macd. I'll make so bold to call, 

For 'tis my limited service. \^Exit. 

Len. Goes the king hence to-day ? 

Mctcb. He does : he did appoint so. 

35 Len. The night has been unruly : where we lay. 
Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, 
Lamentings heard i' the air ; strange screams of death. 
And prophesying with accents terrible 
Of dire combustion and confused events 
40 New hatch'd to the woeful time : the obscure bird 



28 MACBETH 

Clamour'd the livelong night : some say, the earth 
Was feverous and did shake. 

Macb. 'Twas a rough night. 

. Leu. My young remembrance cannot parallel 
A fellow to it. 

Re-enter Macdufp^ 

45 Macd. horror, horror, horror ! Tongue nor heart 
Cannot conceive nor name thee ! 

^^'^^^^- I What's the matter ? 

Len. ) 

Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece ! 

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 

The life o' the building ! 

50 Macb. What is't you say ? the life ? 

Len. Mean you his majesty ? 

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight 

With a new Gorgon : do not bid me speak ; 

See, and then speak yourselves. 

[Exeunt Macbeth and Lenxox. 

Awake, awake ! 

55 Eing the alarum-bell. Murder and treason I 

Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit. 

And look on death itself ! up, up, and see 

The great doom's image ! Malcolm, Banquo ! 

GO As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 

To countenance this horror ! Ring the bell. 



[Bell rings. 



Enter Lady Macbeth. 



Lady M. What's the business. 
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
The sleepers of the house ? speak, speak ! 

Ifacd. gentle lady, 



ACT II. SCENE III 29 

65 'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : 
The repetition, in a woman's ear, 
Would murder as it fell. 

Enter Banquo. 

Banquo, Banquo, 
Our royal master's murder'd ! 

Lady M. Woe, alas ! 

What, in our house ? 

Ban. Too cruel anywhere. 

70 Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 
And say it is not so. 

Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, ivith Ross. 

Macb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
I had lived a blessed time ; for, from this instant, 
There's nothing serious in mortality : 
75 All is but toys : renown and grace is dead ; 
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees 
Is left this vault to brag of. 

Enter Malcolm and Donalbain. 

Don. What is amiss ? 

Macb. You are, and do not know't. 

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
80 Is stopp'd ; the ^ very source of it is stopp'd. 

Macd. Your royal father's murder'd. 

3ral. 0, by whom ? 

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't : 
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood ; 
So Avere their daggers, which unwiped we found 
85 Upon their pillows : 

They stared, and were distracted ; no man's life 
Was to be trusted with them. 



30 MACBETH 

Mad). 0, yet I do repent me of my fury, 
That I did kill them. 

Macd. Wherefore did you so ? 

90 Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious. 
Loyal and neutral, in a moment ? No man : 
The expedition of my violent love 
Outrun the pauser, reason. Here lay Duncan, 
His silver skin laced with his golden blood ; 
95 And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature 
Eor ruin's wasteful entrance : there, the murderers, 
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers 
Unmannerly breech'd with gore : who could refrain. 
That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
Courage to make's love known ? 
100 Lady M. Help me hence, ho ! 

Macd. Look to the lady. 

MaJ. \_Aside to Don.] Why do we hold our tongues, 

That most may claim this argument for ours? 

Don. \_Aside to Mal.] What should be spoken here, 
where our fate. 
Hid in an auger-hole, may rush, and seize us ? 
105 Let's away ; 

Our tears are not yet brew'd. 

Mal. [Aside to Dox.] Nor our strong sorrow 
Upon the foot of motion. 

Ban. Look to the lady : 

[Lady Macbeth is carried out. 
And when we have our naked frailties hid. 
That suffer in exposure, let us meet, 
110 And question this most bloody piece of work. 
To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 
In the great hand of God I stand ; and thence 
Against the undivulged pretence I fight 
Of treasonous malice. 

Macd. And so do I. 



ACT 11. SCENE IV 31 

All So all. 

115 Mach. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, 
And meet i' the hall together. 

All. Well contented: 

\_Exeunt all but Malcolm tuid Donalbaix. 
31al. What will you do ? Let's not consort with them : 
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 
Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. 
120 Don. To Ireland, I ; our separated fortune 
Shall keep us both the safer : where we are, 
There's daggers in men's smiles : the near in blood. 
The nearer bloody. 

Mai. This murderous shaft that's shot 

Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 
125 Is to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse ; 
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking. 
But shift away : there's warrant in that theft 
Which steals itself when there's no mercy left. \_Exeunt. 

Scene IV. Outside Macbeth's castle 

Enter Ross and an Old Man. 

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well : 
Within the volume of which time I have seen 
Hours dreadful and things strange ; but this sore night 
Hath trifled former knowings. 

Ross. Ah, good father, 

5 Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
Threaten his bloody stage : by the clock, 'tis day. 
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp : 
Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
When living light should kiss it ? 
10 Old M. 'Tis unnatural, 



32 MACBETH 

Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, 
A falcon, towering in her pride of place. 
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and kill'd, 

Moss. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange and 
certain — 
i"» Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, 
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out^ 
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
War with mankind. 

Old M. 'Tis said they eat each other, 

Ross. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes 
20 That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Macduff. 

Enter Macduff. 

How goes the world, sir, now ? 

Macd. Why, see you not ? 

Ross. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed ? 

Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 

Ross. Alas, the day ! 

What good could they pretend ? 

Macd. They were suborn'd: 

25 Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, 
Are stoPn away and fled ; which puts upon them 
Suspicion of the deed. 

Ross. 'Gainst nature still ! 

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up 
Thine own life's means ! Then 'tis most like 
30 The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 

Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone 
To be invested. 

Ross. Where is Duncan's body ? 

Macd. Carried to Colme-kill, 
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
And guardian of their bones. 



ACT II. SCENE IV 33 

35 Boss. ' Will you to Scone ? 

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. 

Ross. Well, I will thither. 

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there : adieu ! 
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new ! 
Ross. Farewell, father. 
40 Old M. God's benison go with you ; and with those 
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes ! 

\_Exeuiit. 



34 MACBETH 



ACT III 

Scene I. Forres. The palace 
Enter Baxquo. 

Ban. Thou hast it now : king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, 

As the weird women promised, and, I fear. 

Thou play'dst most foully for't : yet it was said 

It should not stand in thy posterity, 
5 But that myself should be the root and father 

Of many kings. If there come truth from them — 

As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine — 

Why, by the verities on thee made good, 

May they not be my oracles as well, 
10 And set me up in hope ? But hush, no more. 

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth, asking; Lady Macbeth, 
as queen; Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants. 

Mach. Here's our chief guest. 

Lady M. If he had been forgotten, 

It had been as a gap in our great feast. 
And all-thing unbecoming. 

Mach. To-night we hold a solemn supper, sir, 
And I'll request your presence. 
15 Ban. Let your highness 

Command upon me ; to the which my duties 
Are with a most indissoluble tie 
For ever knit. 

Mach. Ride you this afternoon ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord. 

20 Mach. We should have else desired your good advice, 



ACT III. SCENE I 35 

Which still hath been both grave and prosperous, 
In this day's council ; but we'll take to-morrow. 
Is't far you ride ? 

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 
25 'Twixt this and supper : go not my horse the better, 
I must become a borrower of the night 
For a dark hour or twain. 

Macb. Fail not our feast. 

Ban. My lord, I will not. 

Macb. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd 
30 In England and in Ireland, not confessing 
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 
With strange invention : but of that to-morrow, 
When therewithal we shall have cause of state 
Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse : adieu, 
35 Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you ? 
Ban. Ay, my good lord : our time does call upon's. 
Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot ; 
And so I do commend you to their backs. 
Farewell. \_Exit Banquo. 

40 Let every man be master of his time 
Till seven at night : to make society 
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
Till supper-time alone : while then, God be with you ! 

\_Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant. 
Sirrah, a word with you : attend those men 
45 Our pleasure ? 

Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace gate. 
Macb. Bring them before us. \_Exit Attendant. 

To be thus is nothing; 
But to be safely thus. — Our fears in Banquo 
Stick deep ; and in his royalty of nature 
50 Reigns that which would be fear'd : 'tis much he dares ; 
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind. 
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour 



at) MACBETH 

To act in safety. There is none but he 

Whose being I do fear : and, under him, 
55 My Genius is rebuked ; as, it is said, 

Mark Antony's was by Csesar. He chid the sisters 

When first they put the name of king upon me, 

And bade them speak to him : then prophet-like 

They hail'd him father to a line of kings : 
no Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, 

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, 

Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand, 

No son of mine succeeding. If't be so, 

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind ; 
65 For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd ; 

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace 

Only for them ; and mine eternal jewel 

Given to the common enemy of man. 

To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings ! 
70 E-ather than so, come fate into the list. 

And champion me to the utterance ! Who's there ? 

Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers. 

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. 

[Exit Attendant. 
Was it not yesterday we spoke together ? 
First Mar. It was, so please your highness. 
Macb. Well then, now 

75 Have you consider'd of my speeches ? Know 
That it was he in the times past which held you 
So under fortune, which you thought had been 
Our innocent self : this I made good to you 
In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you, 
80 How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments. 
Who wrought with them, and all things else that might 
To half a soul and to a notion crazed 
Say " Thus did Banquo." 



ACT III. SCENE I 37 

First Mur. You made it known to us. 

Much. I did so, and went further, Avhicli is now 
85 Our point of second meeting. Do you find 
Your patience so predominant in your nature 
That you can let this go ? Are you so gospell'd 
To pray for this good man and for his issue, 
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave 
And beggar'd yours for ever ? 
90 First Mur. We are men, my liege. 

Mach. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves are clept 
All by the name of dogs : the valued file 
95 Distinguishes the sw4ft, the slow, the subtle, 
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
According to the gift which bounteous nature 
Hath in him closed, whereby he does receive 
Particular addition, from the bill 
100 That writes them all alike : and so of men. 
Now, if you have a station in the file. 
Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say't ; 
And I will put that business in your bosoms. 
Whose execution takes your enemy off, 
105 Grapples you to the heart and love of us, 
AVho wear our health but sickly .n his life. 
Which in his death were perfect. 

Sec. Mur. I am one, my liege, 

I Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
Have so incensed that I am reckless what 
I do to spite the world, 
no First Mur. And I another 

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune. 
That I would set my life on any chance. 
To mend it, or be rid on't. 

Mach. Both of you 



38 MACBETH 

Know Banquo was your enemy. 

Both Mar. True, my lord. 

115 Mdcb. So is lie mine ; and in such bloody distance, 
That every minute of his being thrusts 
Against my near'st of life : and though I could 
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight 
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, ^ 

120 For certain friends that are both his and mine. 
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall 
Who I myself struck down ; and thence it is. 
That I to your assistance do make love, 
Masking the business from the common eye 
For sundry weighty reasons. 
125 Sec. Mur. We shall, my lord. 

Perform what you command us. 

First Mar. Though our lives — 

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour 
at most 
I will advise you where to plant yourselves ; 
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, 
130 The moment on't ; f or't must be done to-night. 
And something from the palace ; always thought 
That I require a clearness : and with him — 
To leave no rubs nor botches in the work — 
Fleance his son, that keeps him company, 
135 Whose absence is no less material to me 
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
Of that dark hour. Eesolve yourselves apart: 
I'll come to you anon. 

Both Mar. AVe are resolved, my lord. 

Macb. I'll call upon you straight : abide within. 

[^Exeant Murderers. 
140 It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul's flight. 

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exit. 



ACT III. SCENE II. 39 

Scene II. The palace 
Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. 

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court ? 

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-niglit. 

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure 
For a few words. 

Serv. Madam, I will. \^Exit. 

Lady M. Nought's had, all's spent, 

5 Where our desire is got without content : 
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy 
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. 

Enter Macbeth. 

How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone. 

Of sorriest fancies your companions making, 
10 Using those thoughts which should indeed have died 

With them they think on ? Things without all remedy 

Should be without regard : what's done is done. 
Macb. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it : 

She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
15 Remains in danger of her former tooth. 

But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer. 

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 

In the aftiiction of these terrible dreams 

That shake us nightly : better be with the dead, 
-'0 Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace. 

Than on the torture of the mind to lie 

In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave ; 
I After life's fitful fever he sleeps well^ 

Treason has done his worst : nor steelj nor poison, 
25 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing. 

Can touch him further. 



40 MACBETH 

Lady M. Come on ; 

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks •, 

Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night. 
Macb. So shall I, love ; and so, I pray, be you : 
30 Let your remembrance apply to Banquo ; 

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue : 

Unsafe the while, that we 

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams, 

And make our faces vizards to our hearts, 

Disguising what they are. 
35 Lady M. You must leave this. 

Macb. 0, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! 

Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. 
Ljady M. But in them nature's copy's not eterne. 
3Iacb. There's comfort yet ; they are assailable ; 
40 Then be thou jocund : ere the bat hath flown 

His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons 

The shard-borne beetle Avith his drowsy hums 

Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 

A deed of dreadful note. 

Lady M. What's to be done ? 

45 Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck. 

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, 

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day ; 

And with thy bloody and invisible hand 

Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond 
50 Which keeps me pale ! Light thickens ; and the crow 

Makes wing to the rooky wood : 

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse ; 

AVhiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse. 

Thou marvell'st at my words : but hold thee still : 
55 Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. 

So, prithee, go with me. [Exeunt. 



ACT III. SCENE III 41 

Scene III. A park near the jialace 
Enter three Murderers. 

First Mur. But who did bid thee join with us ? 

Third Mar. Macbeth. 

Sec. Mar. He needs not our mistrust; since he delivers 
Our offices, and what we have to do, 
To the direction just. 

First Mur. Then stand with us. 

5 The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day : 
Now spurs the lated traveller apace 
To gain the timely inn ; and near approaches 
The subject of our watch. 

Third Mar. Hark ! I hear horses. 

Ban. Y^Vithin'] Give us a light there, ho! 

Sec. Mar. Then 'tis he : the rest 

10 That are within the note of expectation 
Already are i' the court. 

First Mar. His horses go about. 

Third Mar. Almost a mile : but he does usually, 
So all uien do, from hence to the palace gate 
Make it their walk. 

Sec. Mar. A light, a light ! 

Enter Banquo, and Fleaxce ivith a torch. 

Third Mar. 'Tis he. 

1-) First Mar. Stand to't. 

Ban. It will be rain to-night. 

First Mar. Let it come down. 

[They set upon Banquo. 
Ban. 0, treachery ! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly ! 
Thou mayst revenge. slave ! \_Dies. Fleaxce escapes. 
Third Mar. Who did strike out the light ? 
First Mur. Was't not the way ? 



42 MACBETH 

Third Mur. There's but one down ; the son is fled. 
20 Sec. Mur. We have lost 

Best half of our affair. 

First Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is done. 

l^Exeunt. 
ScEXE IV. Hall in the palace 

A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, 
Koss, Lenxox, Lords, and Attendants. 

Macb. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at first 
And last the hearty welcome. 

Lords. Thanks to your majesty. 

Macb. Oarself will mingle with society. 
And play the humble host. 
5 Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time 
We will require her welcome. 

Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends ; 
For my heart speaks they are welcome. 

First Murderer ap^jears at the door. 

Mach. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks. 
10 Both sides are even : here I'll sit i' the midst : 
Be large in mirth ; anon we'll drink a measure 
The table round. [^App)voaching the door.'] There's blood 
upon thy face. 
Mur. 'Tis Banquo's then. 

3facb. 'Tis better thee without than he within. 
15 Is he dispatch'd ? 

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut ; that I did for him. 
Macb. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats : yet he's good 
That did the like for Fleance : if thou didst it, 
Thou art the nonpareil. 

Mur. Most royal sir, 

20 Fleance is 'scaped. 



ACT III. SCENE IV 43 

Macb. lAside.'] Then comes my fit again : I had else been 
perfect, 
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 
As broad and general as the casing air : 

But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in 1^ 

25 To saucy doubts and fears. — But Banquo's safe ? 

Mur. Ay, my good lord : safe in a ditch he bides, 
With twenty trenched gashes on his head; 
The least a death to nature. 

Macb. Thanks for that : 

[Aside.^ There the grown serpent lies ; the worm that's fled 
30 Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 

No teeth for the present. — Get thee gone : to-morrow 
We'll hear ourselves again. [Exit Murderer. 

Lady M. My royal lord, 

You do not give the cheer : the feast is sold 
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making, 
35 'Tis given with welcome : to feed were best at home ; 
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony ; 
Meeting were bare without it. 

Macb. Sweet remembrancer ! 

Now good digestion wait on appetite. 
And health on both ! 

Len. May't please your highness sit. 

The Ghost of Baxquo enters, and sits in Macbeth's j)lace. 

40 Macb. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, 
Were the graced person of our Banquo present ; 
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 
Than pity for mischance ! 

Ross. His absence, sir. 

Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness 
45 To grace us with your royal company. 
Macb. The table's full. 
Len. Here is a place reserved, sir. 



44 MACBETH 

Mach. AVhere? 

Len. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your 

highness ? 
Mach. Which of you have done this ? 
Lords. ^Miat, my good lord ? 

50 Macb. Thou canst not say I did it : never shake 
Thy gory locks at me. 

Hoss. Gentlemen, rise ; his highness is not well. 
Lady M. Sit, worthy friends ; my lord is often thus, 
And hath been from his yonth: pray you, keep seat; 
55 The lit is momentary ; upon a thought 

He will again be well : if much you note him, 
You shall offend him and extend his passion : 
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man '! 

Mach. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that 
AVhich might appal the devil. 
<iO Lady M. O proper stuff ! 

This is the very painting of your fear : 
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, 
Led you to Duncan. 0, these flaws and starts, 
Impostors to true fear, would well become 
65 A woman's story at a winter's lire. 

Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself ! 
Why do you make such faces ? W'hen all's done. 
You look but on a stool. 

Mach. Prithee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how say 
you? 
70 Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. 
If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
Those that we bury back, our monuments 
Shall be the maws of kites. [^E.xit Ghost. 

Lady M. What, quite unmann'd in folly ? 

Mach. If I stand here, I saw him. 
Lady 31. Fie, for shame ! 

75 Mach. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time. 



ACT III. SCENE IV 45 

Ere liimiane statute })urged the gentle weal ; 
Ay, and since too, murders have been perforni'd 
Too terrible for the ear : the time has been, 
That, when the brains were out, the man w^oukl die, 
HO And there an end; but now they rise again, 
With twenty mortal murders on their crowns. 
And push us from our stools : this is more strange 
Than such a murder is. 

Lady M. My worthy lord. 

Your noble friends do lack you. 

Mach. I do forget. 

85 Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends ; 
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all ; 
Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine ; fill full. 
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, 
i>0 And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ; 
Would he were here! to all and him, we thirst, 
And all to all. 

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. 

Re-enter Ghost. 

Mach. Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide 
thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold ; 
95 Thou hast no speculation in those eyes 
AVhich thou dost glare with ! 

Lady M. Think of this, good peers. 

But as a thing of custom : 'tis no other ; 
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. 
Mach. What man dare, I dare : 
100 Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear. 
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger ; 
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 
Shall never tremble : or be alive again. 



L 



46 MACBETH 

And dare me to the desert with thy sword ; 
105 If trembling I inhabit then, protest me 

The baby of a girL Hence, horrible shadow ! 

Unreal mockery, hence ! \^Exit Ghost. 

Why, so : being gone, 
I am a man again. Pray yon, sit still. 

Ladfj M. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good 
meeting. 
With most admired disorder. 
110 Macb. Can such things be, 

And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 
Without our special wonder ? You make me strange 
Even to the disposition that I owe. 
When now I think you can behold such sights, 
115 And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks. 
When mine is blanch'd with fear. 

Ross. AVhat sights, my lord? 

:'Mdy J\[. I pray you, speak not ; he grows worse and 
worse ; 
Q' ;tion enrages him. At once, good night : 

lid not upon the order of your going. 
But go at once. 
120 Len. Good night ; and better health 

Attend his majesty ! 

Lady M. A kind good night to all ! 

[Exeunt all but Macbeth andljABY M. 
Macb. It will have blood ; they say, blood will have 
blood : 
Stones have been knowu to move and trees to speak ; 
Augures and nnderstood relations have 
125 By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth 
The secret'st man of blood. What is the night ? 

Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which. 
Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person 
At our great bidding ? 



ACT III. SCENE V 47 

Lady M. TMd you send to him, sir ? 

130 Mach. I hear it by the way 5 but I will send : 

There's not a one of them but in his house 

I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow, 

And betimes I will, to the weird sisters : 

More shall they speak ; for now I am bent to know^ 
135 By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good. 

All causes shall give way : I am in blood 

Stepp'd in so far that, should I w^ade no more. 

Returning were as tedious as go o'er : 

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand ; 
140 Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. 

Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 
Mach. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse 

Is the initiate fear that wants hard use : 

We are yet but young in deed. \_Exeiint. 

Scene V. A Heath 
Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting HECATE.^"^'y 



% 



10 



First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! you look angerly. 
Hec. Have I not reason, beldams as you are. 

Saucy and overbold ? How did you dare 

To trade and traffic with Macbeth 

In riddles and affairs of death ; 

And I, the mistress of your charms, 

The close contriver of all harms. 

Was never call'd to bear my part. 

Or show the glory of our art ? 

And, which is worse, all you have done 

Hath been but for a wayward son. 

Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do. 

Loves for his own ends, not for you. 

But make amends now: get you gone, 



4:8 macbp:th 

15 And at the pit of Acheron 

Meet me i' the morning : thither he 
Will come to know his destiny : 
Yonr vessels and your spells provide, 
Your charms and every thing beside. 

'20 I am for the air ; this night I'll spend 

Unto a dismal and a fatal end : 
Great business must be wrought ere noon: 
Upon the corner of the moon 
There hangs a vaporous drop profound ; 

25 I'll catch it ere it come to ground : 

And that distill'd by magic sleights 
Shall raise such artificial sprites 
As by the strength of their illusion 
Shall draw him on to his confusion : 

30 He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 

His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear : 
And you all know, security 
Is mortals' chiefest enemy. 

[Music and a song icithin: "Come away, come 
away," &c.] 
Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see, 

35 Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Exit. 

First Witch. Come, let's make haste ; she'll soon be back 

again. [Exeunt. 



Scene VI. Forres. The ixdace 

Enter Lennox and another Lord. 

Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts, 
Which can interpret further : onl}^, I say, 
Things have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan 
Was pitied of INIacbeth : marry, he was dead : 
5 A-nd the right- valiant Banquo walk'd too late ; 



I 



ACT III. SCENE VI 49 

Whom, you may say, if t please you, Pleance kill'd, 

For Fleance fied : men must not walk too late. 

Who cannot want the thought how monstrous 

It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 
10 To kill their gracious father ? damned fact ! 

How it did grieve Macbeth ! did he not straight 

In pious rage the two delinquents tear, 

That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep V 

Was not that nobly done ? Ay, and wisely too ; 
15 For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive 

To hear the men deny't. So that, I say, 

He has borne all things well : and I do think 

That had he Duncan's sons under his key — 

As, an't please heaven, he shall not — they should find 
20 What 'twere to kill a father ; so should Fleance. 

But, peace ! for from broad words and 'cause he fail'd 

His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear 

Macduff lives in disgrace : sir, can you tell 

Where he bestows himself ? 

Lord. The son of Duncan, 

25 From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, 

Lives in the English court, and is received 

Of the most pious Edward with such grace 

That the malevolence of fortune nothing 

Takes from his high respect : thither Macduff 
30 Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid 

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward : 

That, by the help of these — with Him above 

To ratify the work — we may again 

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, 
35 Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, 

Do faithful homage and receive free honours : 
_ All which Ave pine for now : and this report 

Hath so exasperate the king that he 

Prepares for some attempt of war. 



50 MACBETH 

Len. Sent he to Macduff ? 

40 Lonl. He did : and with an absohite " Sir, not I," 
The cloudy messenger turns me his back, 
And hums, as who should say " You'll rue the time 
That clogs me with this answer." 

Len. And that well might 

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
45 His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 
Fly to the court of England and unfold 
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing 
May soon return to this our suffering country 
Under a hand accursed ! 

Lord. I'll send my prayers with him. 

[Exeunt. 



ACT IV. SCENE I 51 



ACT IV 

Scene I. A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron 

TJmnder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 
Sec. Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. 
Third Witch. Harpier cries ; 'tis time, 'tis time. 
First Witch. Round about the cauldron go ; 
5 In the poisoned entrails throw. 

Toad, that under cold stone 
Days and nights has thirty -one 
Swelter'd venom sleeping got. 
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. 
10 All. Double, double, toil and trouble ; 

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 
Sec. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake. 

In the cauldron boil and bake ; 
Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
15 ' Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, 
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing. 
For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 
20 All. Double, double, toil and trouble ; 

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 
Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf. 

Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, 
25 Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark. 

Liver of blaspheming Jew, 



02 MACBETH 

Gall of goat, and slips of yew 
Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse, 
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 

30 Finger of birth-strangled babe 

Ditch-deliver'd by a drab. 
Make the gruel thick and slab : 
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 
For the ingredients of our cauldron. 

35 ^1//. Double, double, toil and trouble ; 

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. 
Sec Witch, Cool it with a baboon's blood ; 

Then the charm is firm and good. 

Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. 

Hec. 0, well done ! I commend your pains ; 

40 And every one shall share i' the gains : 

And now about the cauldron sing, 
Like elves and fairies in a ring. 
Enchanting all that you put in. 

l^Music and a song : " Black Spirits," &c. 
[Hecate retires. 
Sec. Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs, 
45 Something wicked this way comes. 

Open, locks. 
Whoever knocks ! 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags ! 
What is't you do ? 

All. A deed without a name. 

50 Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, 
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me : 
Though you untie the winds and let them fight 
Against the churches ; though the yesty waves 



ACT IV. SCENE I 53 

Confound and swallow navigation np ; 
55 Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down ; 
Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 
Though palaces and pyramids do slope 
Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure 
Of nature's germens tumble all together, 
(50 Even till des uction sicken ; answer me 
To what I as I you. 

First Witch. Speak. 

Sec. Witch. Demand. 

Third Witch. We'll answer. 

First Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our 
mouths, 
Or from our masters ? 

Much. Call 'em ; let me see 'em. 

First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 
65 Her nine farrow ; grease that's sweaten 

From the murderer's gibbet throw 
Into the flame. 
All. Come, high or low ; 

Thyself and office deftly show ! 

Thunder. First Apparition : an armed Head. 

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, — 
First Witch. He knows thy thought : 

70 Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 

First App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! beware Mac- 
duff; 
Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough. 

\_Descends. 
Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks ; 
Thou hast harp'd my fear aright : but one word more, — 
75 First Witch. He w411 not be commanded : here's another, 
More potent than the first. 



54 MACBETH 

Thunder. Second Apparition : a bloody Child. 

Sec. App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 

Mach. Had I three ears, I'kl hear thee. 

Sec. App. Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to scorn 
80 The power of man, for none of woman born 

Shall harm Macbeth. \_Descends. 

Macb. Then live, Macduff : what need I fear of thee ? 
But yet I'll make assurance double sure, 
And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live ; 
85 That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies. 
And sleep in spite of thunder. 

Thunder. Third Apparition : a Child croivned, ivith a tree in 
his hand. 

What is this 
That rises like the issue of a king, 
And wears upon his baby-brow the round 
And top of sovereignty ? 

All. Listen, but speak not to't. 

90 Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud ; and take no care 
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until 
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill 
Shall come against him. \_Descends. 

Macb. That will never be : 

95 Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 

Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good ! 
Eebellion's head, rise never till the wood 
Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 
100 To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 
Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art 
Can tell so much : shall Banquo's issue ever 
E-eign in this kingdom ? 



ACT IV. SCENE I 55 

All. Seek to know no more. 

3facb. I will be satisfied : deny me this, 
105 And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know. 

Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? \_Hauthoys. 
First Witch. Show! 
Sec. Witch. Show! 
Tliird Witch. Show! 
110 All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart ; 
Gome like shadows, so depart! 

A show of Eight Kings, the last ivith a glass in his hand ; 
Banquo's Ghost folloidng. 

Macl). Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo ; down ! 
Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair, 
Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. 
115 A third is like the former. Filthy hags ! 

Why do you show me this ? A fourth ! Start, eyes ! 
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? 
Another yet ! A seventh ! I'll see no more : 
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
120 Which shows me many more ; and some I see 
That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry : 
Horrible sight ! Now, I see, 'tis true ; 
For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me. 
And points at them for his. \_Apparitions vanish.'] What, 
is this so ? 
125 First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so : but why 
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 

Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites. 
And show the best of our delights : 
I'll charm the air to give a sound, 
130 While you perform your antic round ; 

That this great king may kindly say. 
Our duties did his Avelcome pay. 
\_3Iusic. TJie Witches dance, and then vanish, ivith Hecate. 



56 macbp:th 

Mach. Where are they ? Gone ? Let this pernicious 
hour 
Stand aye accursed in the calendar 
Come in, without there ! 

Enter Lexxox. 

135 Len. What's your grace's will? 

3Iacb. Saw you the weird sisters ? 

Len. No, my lord. 

3Iacb. Came they not by you ? 

Le)i. No, indeed, my lord. 

Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride ; 
And damned all those that trust them I I did hear 
140 The galloping of horse : who was't came by ? 

Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word 
Macduff is fled to England. 

Macb. Fled to England ! 

Len. Ay, my good lord. 

3Iacb. Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits : 
Uo The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 

Unless the deed go with it : from this moment 
The very firstlings of my heart shall be 
The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done : 
150 The castle of Macduff I will surprise ; 

Seize upon Eife ; give to the edge o' the sword 
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls 
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool : 
This deed I'll do before this purpose cool. 
155 But no more sights ! — Where are these gentlemen ? 

Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. 



ACT IV. SCENE II 57 



Scene II. Fife. Macduff's cadle 

Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. 

L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the land ? 
Ross. You must have patience, madam. 
L. Macd. He had none : 

His flight was madness : when our actions do not. 
Our fears do make us traitors. 

Ross. You know not 

5 Whether it was his wisdom or his fear. 

L. Macd. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his babes. 
His mansion and his titles in a place 
From whence himself does fly ? He loves us not; 
He wants the natural touch : for the poor wren, 
10 The most diminutive of birds, will fight. 
Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 
All is the fear and nothing is the love ; 
As little is the wisdom, where the flight 
So runs against all reason. 

Ross. My dearest coz, 

15 I pray you, school yourself : but for your husband. 
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 
The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further ; 
But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 
And do not know ourselves ; when we hold rumour 
20 From what we fear, yet know not what we fear. 
But float upon a wild and violent sea 
Each way and move. I take my leave of you : 
Shall not be long but I'll be here again : 
Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 
25 To what they were before. My pretty cousin. 
Blessing upon you ! 

L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. 
Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer. 



58 MACBETH 

It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : 
I take my leave at once. [Exit. 

30 L, 3Iacd. Sirrah, your father's dead : 

And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 
Son. As birds do, mother. 

L. Maccl. What, with worms and llies ? 

Son. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. 
L. Maccl. Poor bird ! thou'ldst never fear the net nor lime, 
35 The pitfall nor the gin. 

Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not 
set for. 
My father is not dead, for all your saying. 

L. Maccl. Yes, he is dead : how wilt thou do for a father ? 
Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 
40 L. Maccl. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market. 
Son. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. 
L. Maccl. Thou speak'st with all thy wit ; and yet, i' faith. 
With wit enough for thee. 

Son. AVas my father a traitor, mother ? 
45 L. Maccl. Ay, that he was. 
Son. What is a traitor ? 
L. Maccl. Why, one that swears and lies. 
Son. And be all traitors that do so ? 
L. Maccl. Every one that does so is a traitor, and must be 
50 hanged. 

Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie ? 
L. Maccl. Every one. 
Son. Who must hang them ? 
L. Maccl. Why, the honest men. 
55 Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are 
liars and swearers enov^^ to beat the honest men and hang- 
up them. 

//. Maccl. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! But how 
wilt thou do for a father ? 
60 Son. If he were dead, you'ld weep for him : if you would 



ACT IV. SCENE II 59 

not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new 
father. 

L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you known, 
65 Though in your state of honour I am perfect. 

I doubt some danger does approach you nearly : 

If you will take a homely man's advice. 

Be not found here ; hence, with your little ones. 

To fright you thns, methinks, I am too savage ; 
70 To do worse to you were fell cruelty. 

Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you ! 

I dare abide no longer. \_Exit. 

L. Macd. Whither should I fly ? 

I have done no harm. But I remember now 

I am in this earthly world ; where to do harm 
75 Is often laudable, to do good sometime 

Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas, 

Do I put up that womanly defence. 

To say I have done no harm ? 

Enter Murderers. 

What are these faces ? 
First Mur. Where is your husband ? 
80 L- Macd. I hope, in no place so un sanctified 
Where such as thou may'st find him. 

First Mur. He's a traitor. 

jSoji. Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain ! 
First Mur. What, you egg! 

\_Stahhing him. 
Young fry of treachery ! 

Son. He has kill'd me, mother : 

Run away, I pray you ! \_Dies. 

[_Exit Lady Macduff, crying " Murder ! " 
Exeunt Murderers, following her. 



60 MACBETH 

Scene III. England. Before the King's palace 
Enter Malcolm and Macduff. 

MaJ. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 
Weep our sad bosoms empty. 

Macd. , Let us rather 

Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men 
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom : each new morn 
5 New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out 
Like syllable of dolour. 

Mai. What I believe, I'll Avail ; 

What know, believe ; and what I can redress, 
10 As I shall find the time to friend, I will. 
What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues. 
Was once thought honest : you have loved him well ; 
He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young ; but something 
15 You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom 
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb 
To appease an angry god. 

Macd. I am not treacherous. 

Mai. But Macbeth is. 

A good and virtuous nature may recoil 
20 In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon ; 
That which you are my thoughts cannot transpose : 
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : 
Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace. 
Yet grace must still look so. 

Macd. I have lost my hopes. 

25 Mai. Perchance even there where I did find my doubts. 
Why in that rawness left you wife and child. 
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love. 



ACT IV. SCENE III 61 

Without leave-taking ? I pray you, 

Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, 
30 But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, 

Whatever I shall think. 

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country ! 

Great tyranny ! lay thou thy basis sure, 

For goodness dare not check thee : wear thou thy wrongs ; 

The title is affeer'd ! Fare thee well, lord : 
35 I would not be the villain that thou think'st 

For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp, 

And the rich East to boot. 

Mai. Be not offended : 

I speak not as in absolute fear of you. 

I think our country sinks beneath the yoke ; 
40 It weeps, it bleeds ; and each new day a gash 

Is added to her wounds : I think withal 

There would be hands uplifted in my right ; 

And here from gracious England have I offer 

Of goodly thousands : but, for all this, 
45 When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head. 

Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 

Shall have more vices than it had before. 

More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, 

By him that shall succeed. 

Macd. What should he be ? 

50 Mai. It is myself I mean : in whom I know 

All the particulars of vice so grafted 

That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth 

Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 

Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 

With my confineless harms. 
55 3facd. Not in the legions 

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd 

In evils to top Macbeth. 

Mai. I grant him bloody, 



62 MACBETH 

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, 
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 

60 That has a name : but there's no bottom, none, 
In my voluptuousness : your wives, your daughters. 
Your matrons and j^our maids, could not fill up 
The cistern of my lust, and my desire 
All continent impediments would o'erbear 

65 That did oppose my will : better Macbeth 
Than such an one to reign. 

Macd. Boundless intemperance 

In nature is a tyranny ; it hath been 
The untimely emptying of the happy throne 
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 

70 To take upon you what is joins : you may 
Conve}' your pleasures in a spacious plenty, 
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink. 
We have willing dames enough ; there cannot be 
That vulture in you, to devour so many 

75 As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 
Finding it so inclined. 

Mai. With this there grows 

In my most ill-composed aff^TTtion such 
A stanchless avarice that, were I king, 
I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 

80 Desire his jewels and this other's house : 
And my more-having would be as a sauce 
To make me hunger more ; that I should forge 
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
Destroying them for wealth. 

Macd. This avarice 

85 Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 
The sword of our slain kings : yet do not fear ; 
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will, 
Of your mere own : all these are portable, 

90 With other graces weigh'd. 



ACT IV. SCENE III 63 

JIal. But I have none : tlie king-becoming graces, 
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, 
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 
95 I have no relish of them, but abound 
In the division of each several crime. 
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 
Uproar the universal peace, confound 
All unity on earth. 
100 Macd. Scotland, Scotland ! 

3IaL If such a one be fit to govern, speak : 
I am as I have spoken. 
^ Afacd. Fit to govern ! 

M No, not to live. nation miserable, 
P" With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd ! 

105 When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again. 
Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
|| By his own interdiction stands accursed. 

And does blaspheme his breed ? Thy royal father 
Was a most sainted king : the queen that bore thee, 
110 Oftener upon her knees than on her feet, 
Died every day she lived. Fare thee well ! 
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself 
Have banish'd me from Scotland. my breast. 
Thy hope ends here ! 

McU. Macduff, this noble passion, 

115 Child of integrity, hath from my soul 

Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 
To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth 
By many of these trains hath sought to win me 
Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me 
120 From over-credulous haste : but God above 
Deal between thee and me ! for even now 
I put myself to thy direction, and 



64 MACBETH 

[Jnspeak mine own detraction ; here abjure 

The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 
125 For strangers to my nature. I am yet 

Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, 

Scarcely have coveted what was mine own. 

At no time broke my faith, would not betray 

The devil to his fellow, and delight 
130 Ko less in truth than life : my first false speaking 

Was this upon myself : what I am truly. 

Is thine and my poor country's to command : 

Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, 

Old Si ward, with ten thousand warlike men, 
135 Already at a point, was setting forth. 

Now we'll together; and the chance of goodness 

Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent ? 
Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 

'Tis hard to reconcile. 

Ente}' a Doctor. 
3fal. Well ; more anon. — Comes the king forth, I pray 

140 you ? 

Doct. Ay, sir ; there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
The great assay of art ; but at his touch — 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand — 
They presently amend. 
145 3IaL I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor. 

3Iacd. What's the disease he means ? 

Mai 'Tis call'd the evil : 

A most miraculous work in this good king ; 
Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
150 Himself best knows : but strangely-visited people, 
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye. 
The mere despair of surge r}^, he cures, 



ACT IV. SCENE III 65 

Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
Put on with holy prayers : and 'tis spoken, 
155 To the succeeding royalty he leaves 

The healing benediction. With this strange virtue, 
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 
And sundry blessings hang about his throne. 
That speak him full of grace. 

Enter Eoss. 

Macd. ' See, who comes here ? 

IGO ^fal. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. 

Macd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither. 

3Ial. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove 
The means that makes us strangers ! 

Ross. Sir, amen. 

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ? 

Ross. Alas, poor country J 

105 Almost afraid to know itself ! It cannot 

Be call'd our mother, but our grave ; where nothing, 
But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ; 
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air 
Are made, not mark'd ; where violent sorrow seems 
170 A modern ecstasy : the dead man's knell 

Is there scarce ask'd for who; and good men's lives 
Expire before the flowers in their caps, 
Dying or ere they sicken. 

Macd. 0, relation 

Too nice, and yet too true ! 

Mai. What's the newest grief ? 

375 Ross. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker : 
Each minute teems a new oue. 

Macd. How does my wife ? 

Ross. Why, well. 

Macd. And all my children ? 

Ross. Well too. 



66 MACBETH 

Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace ? 

Ross. No ; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em. 
180 Macd. Be not a niggard of j^our speech : how goes't ? 

Ross. When I came hither to transport the tidings, 
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour ^ 

Of many worthy fellows that were out ; 
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, 
185 For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : 

Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland 
Would create soldiers, make our women fight, 
To doff their dire distresses. 

Mai. Be't their comfort 

We are coming thither : gracious England hath 
liK) Lent us good Si ward and ten thousand men; 
An older and a better soldier none 
That Christendom gives out. 

Ross. AVouhl I could answer 

This comfort with the like ! But I have words 
That would be howl'd out in the desert air, 
Where hearing should not latch them. 
195 Macd. AYhat concern they ? 

The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 
Due to some single breast ? 

Ross. No mind that's honest 

But in it shares some woe ; though the main part 
Pertains to you alone. 

Macd. If it be mine, 

200 Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 

Ross. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
That ever yet they heard. 

Macd. Hum ! I guess at it. 

Ross. Your castle is surprised ; your wife and babes 
205 Savagely slaughter'd : to relate the manner. 
Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer. 
To add the death of you. 



ACT IV. SCENE III 67 

Mai. Merciful heaven ! 

What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows ; 
Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
210 Whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break. 

Macd. My children too ? 

Ross. Wife, children, servants, all 

That could be found. 

Macd. And I must be from thence ! 

My wife -kill'd too? 

Ross. I have said. 

Mai. Be comforted : 

Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
215 To cure this deadly grief. 

Macd. He has no children. All my pretty ones ? 
Did you say all ? hell-kite ! All ? 
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
At one fell swoop ? 

Mai. Dispute it like a man. 
220 Macd. I shall do so ; 

But I must also feel it as a man : 
I cannot but remember such things were, 
That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on. 
And would not take their part ? Sinful Macduff, 
225 They were all struck for thee ! naught that I am. 
Not for their own demerits, but for mine, 
Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now ! 

Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword : let grief 
Convert to anger ; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 
230 Macd. 0, I could play the woman with mine eyes 
And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
Bring" thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; 
AVithin my sword's length set him ; if he 'scape, 
Heaven forgive him too ! 
235 Mai. This tune goes manly. 



i 



68 MACBETH 



Come, go we to the king ; our power is ready ; 
Our lack is nothiug but our leave : Macbeth 
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may ; 
240 The night is long that never finds the day. [Exeunt. 



I 



ACT V. SCENE I 69 



ACT V 

Scene I. Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle 
Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman. 

Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but can per- 
ceive no truth in your report. When was it she last walked ? 

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen 

her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock 

5 her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it, 

afterwards seal it, and again return to bed ; yet all this 

while in a most fast sleep. 

Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once 

the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching! In 

10 this slumbery agitation, besides her walking and other 

actual performances, what, at any time, have you heard her 

say? 

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. 

Doct. You may to me : and 'tis most meet you should. 
15 Gent. Neither to you nor any one ; having no witness to 
confirm my speech. 

Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper. 

Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise ; and, upon 
my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand close. 
Doct. How came she by that light ? 
20 Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by her con- 
tinually ; 'tis her command. 

Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 
Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. 

Doct. What is it she does now ? Look, how she rubs her 
25 hands. 



70 MACBETH 

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus 
washing her hands : I have known lier continue in this a 
quarter of an hour. 

Lady M. Yet here's a spot. 
30 Doct. Hark ! she speaks : I will set down what comes 
from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly. 

Lady 3L Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! — One : two : 
why, then, 'tis time to do't. — Hell is murky ! — Fie, my 
lord, fie ! a soldier, and afeard ? What need we fear who 
35 knows it, when none can call our power to account ? — Yet 
who would have thought the old man to have had so much 
blood in him. 

Doct. Do you mark that ? 

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife : where is she now ? 
40 — What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? — No more o' that 
my lord, no more o' that : you mar all with this starting. 

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you should 
not. 

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of 
45 that : heaven knows what she has known. 

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still : all the per- 
fumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, 
oh! 

Doct. AYhat a sigh is there ! The heart is sorely charged. 
50 Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the 
dignity of the whole bodj^ 

Doct. Well, well, well, — 

Gent. Pray God it be, sir. 

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I have 
55 known those which have walked in their sleep who have 
died holily in their beds. 

Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown ; look 
not so pale. — I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he 
cannot come out on's grave. 
60 Doct. Even so ? 




What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? ' 



ACT V. SCENE II 71 

Lady M. To bed, to bed ! there's knocking at the gate : 
come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's done 
cannot be undone. — To bed, to bed, to bed ! [Exit. 

Doct. Will she go now to bed ? 
65 Gent. Directly. 

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad : unnatural deeds 
Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds 
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 
More needs she the divine than the physician. 
70 God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; 
Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night : 
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight. 
I think, but dare not speak. 

Gent. Good night, good doctor. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene II. The country near Dunsinane 

Drum and coloiirs. Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 
Lennox, and Soldiers. 

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, 
His uncle Siward and the good Macduff : 
Revenges burn in them ; for their dear causes 
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 
Excite the mortified man. 
5 ^ng. Near Birnam wood 

Shall we well meet them ; that way are they coming. 

Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ? 

Len. For certain, sir, he is not : I have a file 
Of all the gentry : there is Siward's son, 
10 And many unrough youths, that even now 
Protest their first of manhood. 

Ment. What does the tyrant ? 



72 MACBETH 

Caith. Great Dunsinane lie strongly fortifies ; 

Some say he's mad ; others that lesser hate him 

Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, 
15 He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause - 

Within the belt of rule. 
Ang. Now does he feel 

His secret murders sticking on his hands ; 

Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach; 

Those he commands move only in command, 
20 Nothing in love : now does he feel his title 

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 

Upon a dwarfish thief. 

3Ient. Who then shall blame 

His pester'd senses to recoil and start, 

AVhen all that is within him does condemn 

Itself for being there ? 
25 Caith. Well, march we on. 

To give obedience where 'tis truly owed : 

Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, 

And with him pour we in our country's purge 

Each drop of us. 

Leu. Or so much as it needs, 

30 To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds. 

Make we our march towards Birnam. \_Exeunt, marching. 

Scene III. Dunsinane. A room in the castle 

Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 

Macb. Bring me no more reports ; let them fly all : 
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, 
I cannot taint Avith fear. What's the boy Malcolm ? 
Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know 
5 All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus : 
" Eear not, Macbeth ; no man that's born of woman 



ACT V. SCENE III 73 

Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false thanes, 
t And mingle with the English epicures: 

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 
10 Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 

Enter a Servant. 

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced Iooe ! 
Where got'st thou that goose look ? 
Serv. There is ten thousand — 
Macb. Geese, villain ? 

Serv. Soldiers, sir. 

Mach. Go prick thy face, and^ over-red thy fear, 
15 Thou lily-liver'd boy. AVhat soldiers, patch ? 
Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, Avhey-face ? 
Serv. The English force, so please you. 
Macb. Take thy face hence. \_Exit Servant. 

Sey ton ! — I am sick at heart, 
20 When I behold — Seyton, I say ! — This push 
Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now. 
I have lived long enough : my way of life 
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf ; 
And that which should accompany old age, 
25 As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
I must not look to have ; but, in their stead. 
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath. 
Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. 
Seyton ! 

Enter Seyton. 

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure ? 
30 Mach. What news more ? 

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. 
Mach, I'll fight till from my bones my flesh be hack'd. 
Give me my armour. 



74 MACBETH 

Sey. 'Tis not needed yet. 

Macb. I'll put it on. 
35 Send out moe horses ; skirr the country round ; J 

Hang those that talk of fear, ^'ve me mine armour. 1 

How does your patient, doctor ? 

Doct. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies. 
That keep her from her rest. 

Macb. Cure her of that. 

40 Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased. 
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain 
And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon the heart ? 
45 Doct. Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself. 

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs ; I'll none of it. 
Come, put mine armour on 5 give me my staff. 
Seyton, send out. Doctor, the thanes fly from me. 
50 Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast 
The water of my land, find her disease. 
And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
I would applaud thee to the very echo, 
That should applaud again. — Pull't off, I say. — 
55 What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug. 

Would scour these English hence ? Hear'st thou of them ? 

Doct. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation 
Makes us hear something. 

Macb. Bring it after me. 

I will not be afraid of death and bane, 
60 Till Birnani forest come to Dunsinane. 

Doct. \_Aside.'] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear. 
Profit again should hardly draw me here. \_Exeunt. 




Throw physic to the dogs ; I '11 none of it. 
Come, put mine armour on ; give me my staff." 



ACT V. SCENE IV 75 



Scene IV. Country near Birnam tvood 

Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and his 
Sou, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, 
Eoss, and Soldiers, inarching. 

Mai. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 
That chambers will be safe. 

Me7it. We doubt it nothing. 

Siic. What wood is this before us ? 

Me7it. The wood of Birnam. 

3Ial. Let every soldier hew him down a bough 
.5 And bear't before him : thereby shall we shadow 
The numbers of our host and make discovery 
Err in report of us. 

/Soldiers. It shall be done. 

Siiv. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 
Our setting down before't. 
10 Mai. 'Tis his main hope : 

For where there is advantage to be given, 
Both more and less have given him the revolt, 
And none serve with him but constrained things 
Whose hearts are absent too. 

Macd. Let our just censures 

15 Attend the true event, and put we on 
Industrious soldiership. 

Siiv. The time approaches 

That will with due decision make us know 
What we shall say we have and what we owe. 
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 
20 But certain issue strokes must arbitrate : 

Towards which advance the war. [^Exeuyit, marching. 



76 MACBETH 



Scene Y. Dunsinane. Within the castle 

Enter Macbeth, Seytox, and Soldiers, icith drum, and 

colours. 

Mach. Hang out our banners on the outward walls j 
The cry is still " They come : " our castle's strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn : here let them lie 
Till famine and the ague eat them up : 
5 Were they not forced with those that should be ours, 
We might have met them dareful, beard to beard. 
And beat them backward home. \_A cry of women ivithin. 

What is that noise ? 

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit. 

Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : 
10 The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 
To hear a night-shriek ; and my fell of hair 
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 
As life were in't : 1 have supp'd full with horrors ; 
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, 
Cannot once start me. 

Re-enter Seyton. 

15 Wherefore was that cry ? 

Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. 
Mach. She should have died hereafter ; 

There would have been a time for such a word. 

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
20 Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 

To the last syllable of recorded time. 

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ! 

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
25 Tha,t struts and frets his hour upon the stage 



1 



r 



ACT V. SCENE V 77 

And then is heard no more : it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifying nothing. 

Eiiter a Messenger. 

Thou comest to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. 
30 3fess. Gracious my lord, 

I should report that which I say I saw, 

But know not how to do it. 

Macb. Well, say, sir. 

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, 

I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, 

The wood began to move. 
35 Macb. Liar and slave ! 

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : 

Within this three mile may you see it coming ; 

I say, a moving grove. 

Macb. If thou speak'st false, 

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, 
40 Till famine cling thee : if thy speech be sooth, 

I care not if thou dost for me as much. 

I pull in resolution, and begin 

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend 

That lies like truth : " Fear not, till Birnam wood 
45 Do come to Dunsinane : " and now a wood 

Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out ! 

If this which he avouches does appear. 

There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 

I 'gin to be aweary of the sun, 
50 And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. 

Eing the alarum-bell ! Blow, wind ! come, wrack ! 

At least we'll die with harness on our back. [_Exeiint. 



78 MACBETH 



Scene VI. Dunsinane. Before the castle 

Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, 
and their Army, icith boughs. 

Mai. Now near enough : your leavy screens throw down, 
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle. 
Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son, 
Lead our first battle : worthy Macduff and we 
5 Shall take upon's what else remains to do, 
According to our order. 

Siiv. Fare you well. 

Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 

3facd. Make all our trumpets speak ; give them all breath, 
10 Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. [Exeunt. 



Scene VII. Another part of the field 

Alarums. Enter Macbeth. 

Mach. They have tied me to a stake ; I cannot fly, 
But bear-like, I must fight the course. What's he 
That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
Am I to fear, or none. 

Enter young Siward. 

Yo. Siw. What is thy name ? 
5 Mach. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. 

Yo. Shv. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter name 
Than any is in hell. 

Mach. My name's Macbeth. 

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a title 
More hateful to mine ear. 



ACT V. SCENE VII 79 

Macb. No, nor more fearful. 

10 Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant ; with my sword 
I'll prove the lie thou speak'st. 

\_They fight, and young Siward is slain. 
Macb. Thou wast born of woman. 

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. \_Exit. 

Alarums. Enter Macduff. 

Macd. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face ! 
15 If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, 

My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 

I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 

Are hired to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 

Or else my sword with an unbatter'd edge 
20 I sheathe again undeeded. There thou should st be ; 

By this great clatter, one of greatest note 

Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune ! 

And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums. 

Eyiter Malcolm ayid old Siward. 

SlU). This way, my lord ; the castle's gently render'd : 
25 The tyrant's people on both sides do fight ; 
The noble thanes do bravely in the war ; 
The day almost itself professes yours, 
And little is to do. 

Mai. We have met with foes 

That strike beside us. 

Siw. Enter, sir, the castle. 

\_Exeunt. Alarums. 



80 MACBETH 

Scene VIII. Another part of the field 

Enter Macbeth. 

Mach. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
On mine own sword ? whiles I see lives, the gashes 
Do better upon them. 

Enter Macduff. 

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn ! 

Mad). Of all men else I have avoided thee : 
5 But get thee back ; my soul is too much charged 
With blood of thine already. 

Macd. I have no words : 

My voice is in my sword : thou bloodier villain 
Than terms can give thee out ! \_Tliey fight. 

Mad). Thou losest labour : 

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air 
10 AVith thy keen sword impress as make me bleed : 
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests ; 
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 
To one of woman born. 

Macd. Despair thy charm; 

And let the angel whom thou still hast served 
15 Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 
Untimely ripp'd. 

Mach. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, 
For it hath cow'd my better part of man ! 
And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 
20 That palter with us in a double sense ; 
That keep the word of promise to our ear. 
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. 

Macd. Then yield thee, coward. 
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time : 
25 We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 



ACT V. SCENE VIII 81 

Painted upon a pole, and underwrite 
" Here may you see the tyrant." 

Macb. I will not yield, 

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 
And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 
30 Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane 
And thou opposed, being of no woman born. 
Yet I will try the last : before my body 
1 throw my warlike shield : Lay on, Macduff, 
And damn'd be him that first cries "Hold, enough !" 

\_Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. 

lietreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, Mal- 
colm, old SiWAKD, Ross, the other Thanes, and Soldiers. 

35 3Ial. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 
Siiv. Some must go off : and yet, by these I see, 
So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 

3Ial. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 
Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt : 
40 He only lived but till he was a man ; 

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd 
In the unshrinking station where he fought. 
But like a man he died. 

Siw. Then he is dead ? 

Ross. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of sorrow 
45 Must not be measured by his worth, for then 
It hath no end. 

Siiv. Had he his hurts before ? 

Ross. Ay, on the front. 

Siw. ^Vhy then, God's soldier be he ! 

Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 
I would not wish them to a fairer death : 
And so his knell is knoll'd. 
50 Mai He's worth more sorrow, 

And that I'll spend for him. 



82 MACBETH 

Siw. He's worth no more : 

The}^ say he parted well, and paid his score : 
And so God be with him ! Here comes newer comfort. 

Re-enter Macduff, loitli Macbeth's head. 

Macd. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold, where stands 
55 The usurper's cursed head : the time is free : 

I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, 

That speak my salutation in their minds ; 

Whose voices I desire aloud with mine : 

Hail, King of Scotland ! 

All. Hail, King of Scotland ! \_Flourisli. 

60 Med. We shall not spend a large expense of time 

Before we reckon with your several loves. 

And make us even with you. My thanes and kinsmen, 

Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland 

In such an honour named. W^hat's more to do, 
65 Which would be planted newly with the time, 

As calling home our exiled friends abroad 

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny ; 

Producing forth the cruel ministers 

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 
70 Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands 

Took off her life ; this, and what needful else 

That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace, 

We will perform in measure, time and place : 

So, thanks to all at once and to each one, 
75 Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. 

[^Flourish. Exeunt. 






NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

[Reference to the bibliography on pp. xxvi-xxvii will make plain all 
abbreviations. The stndent should always have at hand a good dic- 
tionary,— Skeat, the Century, or Webster.] 

Act I. Scene I 

On this scene as the conclusion of the witches' Sabbath, see 
Introduction, p. xix. 
3 hurlyburly, a reduplicated word, meaning uproar or tumult. 

8 Graymalkin. Malkin, a diminutive of Mary, was frequently 

applied to a menial. Here it is the name of a cat. 

9 Paddock, diminutive of padde, a toad. Graymalkin and Pad- 

dock are the familiar spirits of the first two witches ; they 
are fiends who have taken the forms of the cat and the toad. 
The attendant of the third witch is Harpier. — See IV, i, 8. 

10 Fair is foul, and foul is fair. What is to others fair is to us 

foul; and what to others is foul is to us fair. The sentence 
is to be interpreted literally and figuratively. 

11 Hover, let us hover. 

(a) Notice that the mystical character of the witches is de- 
noted by their number, (b) What powers not belonging to 
ordinary mortals do they possess ? (c) To whom does the 
third witch address " anon " ? (d) In the presentation of 
the scene, should the audience hear any cries through the 
storm? (e) Observe the dramatic purpose in mentioning 
Macbeth at once. (/) Why are the witches so anxious to 
meet him rather than some one else ? 

Act I. Scene II 

A camp near Forres. " Probably situated in the moors to the 
south of the town, so as to intercept the march of the invad- 
ers from Fife to the royal residences of the north. Wide 
and almost level tracts of heath extend southwards from 
83 



84 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

Forres, amidst which the march of an army might be dis- 
cerned from a great distance." — Kxight. For Forres, see 
map. 
JNIeaning of alarum ? 

Look up the characters of this scene in the list of dramatis per- 
sonce. 
5 captivity, i.e. capture by the rebels. 
9 choke, figurative for <' render useless." 
10 for to that, because to that end. 

12 western isles, the islands off the west of Scotland, including 

perhaps Ireland. 

13 kerns and gallowglasses. "Kerns w^ere light-armed troops, 

having only darts, daggers or knives ; the gallowglasses had 
helmet, coat of mail, long sword, and axe." — Clark and 
AVright. Both words were usually applied to Irish troops. 

15 Show'd like, had the smile and the false and showy appearance 

of. 

16 name, refers to what? 

19 minion, darling, or favorite. 

21 Which. The antecedent is Macbeth (1. 16). Read and he for 

Which, and the meaning becomes clear. 

22 nave = navel. 

24 cousin, often used by Shakespeare as a courteous and kindly 
title ; but here it is used in its literal sense. Macbeth and 
Duncan were grandsons of King Malcolm, Duncan's imme- 
diate predecessor. 

25-28 As whence . . . swells. An allusion here to the equinoc- 
tial storms of spring. Explain the meaning of the passage, 
observing the play upon spring. 

31 Norweyan lord, Sweno, king of Norway, 
surveying vantage, meaning ? 

37 cracks = reports ; the word is used by metonymy for charges. 

38 Doubly redoubled, meaning? 
40 memorize, make memorable. 

Golgotha, see St. Matthew xxvii. 33. 
45 thane, a nobleman, among the Anglo-Saxons, inferior to an 

earl. 
47 seems to speak, is about to speak. From one who looks like 
Ross, you would expect strange tidings. 



ACT I. SCENE II 85 

48 Fife. Look up on the map. 

49 flout, mock. 

50 fan . . . cold, stiifen with fear. 
Norway, king of Norway. 

53 Look up Cawdor on the map. 

54 Bellona, Roman goddess of war. 

proof, armor that has been proved or tested. 

55 self-comparisons, hand-to-hand combat, blow for blow 
57 lavish, insolent. 

59 That, so that. 

60 Notice the plural Norwai/s\ used instead of Norwegians'. 
composition, terms of peace. 

62 Saint Colme's inch. Saint Columba's Island, now called Inch- 

colm, in the Firth of Forth. See map. Look up Saint Co- 
lumba in the encyclopedia. Of course the battle was not 
fought on the island, but on the shore near it. 

63 dollars. " The dollar was first coined about 1518, in the Val- 

ley of. St. Joachim, in Bohemia, whence its name, Joachim's- 
thaler." — Clark and Wright. Thaler, dollar, from thai, a 
valley. Note Shakespeare's anachronism. 
65 Our bosom interest, our nearest and dearest concerns. 
present, instant. • 

(a) Relate in your own language the military events of this 
scene. (6) What kind of man is Macbeth held to be by the 
Sergeant, by Ross, and by the King? Note the expressions 
used to describe him. (c) What other side of Macbeth's 
character seems to be known to the witches? (d) Note 
that at this point we know of Macbeth only by hearsay ; we 
have not yet seen him in action before us. Why does 
Shakespeare proceed in this way ? Why not introduce Mac- 
beth on the stage at once? 
(e) The versification of this scene is very irregular. Observe 
the accented syllables and their number in lines 3, 5, 7, 19, 
20, 25, 34, 37, 40, 41, 51, 67. For execution (18), minmi (19), 
and reflection (25), see Introduction, p. xxiii. Some would 
make Hail (5) dissyllabic; and sergeant (3) and captains 
(34) trisyllabic. 



86 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 



Act I. Scene III 



A heath. " Common superstition assigns the Harmuir, on the 
borders of Elgin and Nairn, as the place of the interview 
between Macbeth and the weird sisters. A more dreary- 
piece of moorland is not to be found in all Scotland. Its 
eastern limit is about six miles from Forres, and its western 
four from Nairn, and the high road from these places inter- 
sects it. This 'blasted heath' is without tree or shrub. A 
few patches of oats are visible here and there, and the eye 
reposes on a fir-plantation at one extremity ; but all around 
is bleak and brown, made up of peat and bog-water, white 
stones and bushes of furze. Sand-hills and a line of blue 
sea, beyond which are the distant hills of Ross and Caith- 
ness, bound it to the north ; a farmstead or two may be seen 
afar off; and the ruins of a castle rise from amidst a few 
trees on the estate of Brodie of Brodie on the north-west. 
There is something startling to a stranger in seeing the 
solitary figure of the peat-digger or rush-gatherer moving 
amidst the w^aste in the sunshine of a calm autumn day; 
but the desolation of the scene in stormy weather, or when 
the twilight fogs are trailing over the pathless heath or 
settling down upon the pools, must be indescribable." — 
Knight. See map. 
2 Killing swine. One of the fifteen crimes wath which witches 
w^ere charged was that of killing men's cattle. — Scot, II, ix. 

6 Aroint thee, begone. 

rump-fed, fed on rumps, i.e. on " the best joints." 
ronyon, "scabby or mangy woman." 

7 Aleppo, in Asiatic Turkey ; look up. 

Tiger, name of ship. The sailor would land on the coast of 
Tripoli (in the Levant), and proceed overland to Aleppo. 
Write a metrical analysis of this line. 

8 in a sieve. Witches w^ere represented as going out to sea in 

great companies, in sieves, egg-shells, or cockle-shells. See 
Introduction, p. xix. 

9 like a rat without a tail. The transformation of a witch or of 

an evil spirit into an animal was usually not quite complete. 
10 I'll do, etc., gnaw a hole in the Tiger ? 



ACT I. SCENE III 87 

11-14. Witches could loan winds to one another, or sell them to 

others. 
15 blow, blow upon; heuce, control. 

17 card, chart ? or compass V 

18 I will drain the blood from his body. 

20 A i^ent-liouse is a lean-to. See the dictionary. 

21 forbid, cursed. 

22-23. The witch, it was believed, could make her enemies piue 
away. She would mold an image of wax, hold it over a 
fire ; and as the wax melted, the person she hated would 
likewise waste away. This process she might begin, sus- 
pend, and resume, over a long period, even over sennights 
nine times nine. — How long ? 

24 Why cannot the bark be lost? Is the sailor protected by a 

good spirit ? 

25 Who raises the tempest? 

32 weird (spelled ice }j ward in the First Folio) is the Anglo-Saxon 

word ivyrd, which means fate or destiny. On the common 
belief in the prophetic powers of witches, see Introduction, 
p. xviii. At this point Shakespeare is beginning to spiritual- 
ize his witches, making them stand for the awakened impulse 
in man's nature toward evil deeds. A common way of put- 
ting the ethical formula is to say that one ill deed begets 
another. You will see how this is illustrated in the career 
of Macbeth. 
hand in hand. The witches dance in a ring, how many times ? 

33 Posters, swift travelers. 

38 See I, i, 10. Do you see any subtle significance in Macbeth's 
repetition of the w^ords used by the witches in the first 
scene? Does Shakespeare mean to imply that Macbeth and 
the witches are in moral harmony? 

44 choppy, chappy. 

48 Glamis. See map. 

49 Cawdor. See I, ii, 53. 

51 Why is Macbeth startled? Are w^e to suppose that he had 
already thought of usurping the throne? 

53 fantastical, beings created by the imagination. 

54 show, appear to be. 
57 withal, with it. 



88 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

66 happy, fortunate. 

71 Sinel, ]Macbeth's father. 

73 A prosperous gentleman. See I, ii, 52. Is there a real incon- 
sistency here, or is Maclieth playing a part for some purpose ? 

76 owe, have. 

78 [Witches vanish. They slowly withdraw through the air and 
seem to vanish like spirits. Here again Shakespeare 
spiritualizes his witches. 

8i the insane root, the roots of hemlock, which, it was believed, 
made men imagine beings that do not really exist. 

91 See L ii, 50-58. 

92-93 His wonders ... or his. This is an Elizabethan conceit. 
The king's impulse to express wonder at the bravery of 
Macbeth is neutralized by the impulse to praise him. He 
is therefore silent. 

97 hail. The First Folio has tale in the sense of counting, i.e. 
post came after post as rapidly as one could count. Which 
reading do you like better? Is there an exaggeration in 
either case? 
10-4 earnest, assurance. 

106 addition, title. 

107 See line 49 of this scene. The devil spoke through the 

second witch. 
112 line, strengthen. 

rebel. Who is the rebel ? 
116 [Aside.] It is assumed that the aside is inaudible to the 

other characters on the stage, but distinctly heard by the 

audience. This is one of the conventions of the drama. 
120 home, implicitly. 
124 The witches are the instruments of evil spirits, and are to an 

extent identified with them. 

128 Note here the language of the stage. 

129 imperial theme, theme of empire. 

130 soliciting, inciting. 
134 suggestion, temptation. 

137-138 The dangers of the present moment do not frighten one 
so much as the terrors of the future, created by the imagi- 
nation. For we know precisely what must be faced in the 
present ; but the future is uncertain. — A general observa- 
tion. 



^ 



I 



I 



ACT r. SCENE IV 89 

139-142 The murder, as yet committed only in the imagination, 
paralyzes all the normal functions of the mind, so that what 
is seems not to be, and what is not seems real to me. 

140 single state means helpless state; perhaps there is here the 
notion of a state shorn of its allies and thus enfeebled. 

144 Without my stir, without my doing anything. Macbeth for 
the moment is disposed to leave to chance the question of 
his being king. 

147 Time . . . day. The chance of line 144 now becomes fate. 
Macbeth believes there will come a time favorable to the 
murder of Duncan. 

149 Give me your favour, pardon me. 

149-150 my dull brain . . . forgotten. How far is Macbeth play- 
ing the hypocrite? For what purpose? 

149 wrought = perplexed. 

(a) What is the appearance of the witches? (h) What are 
they able to do? (c) What expressions in the scene seem 
to lend to them a supernatural character? (fZ) By what 
means do they lead ]\Iacbeth to trust them ? (e) How does 
Banquo regard them ? (/) How do they affect Macbeth ? 

Act I. Scene IV 

2 Those in commission. See I, ii, 65-67. Who executed Cawdor? 
9 studied in his death, like an actor, who having to die on the 
stage, liad studied well his part. 

10 dearest thing, his life, 
owed = owned. 

11 As, followed by subjunctive, = as if. 
careless trifle, a trifle he cared nothing for. 

16-18 thou art . . . overtake thee. Explain the metaphor. 

19 proportion, due proportion. 

27 Safe . . . honour, that will render your love and honor as- 
sured. 

30-31 nor . . . No less. Xote the double negative. The absurd 
notion that tw^o negatives make an affirmative is derived 
from the Latin. It is foreign to the genius of the Germanic 
languages. 

33 The harvest is your own. Explain the metaphor. 



90 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

34 Wanton, exuberant. 

39 Prince of Cumberland. '' Cumberland was at that time held by 
Scotland of the crown of England as a fief." — Clark and 
Wkight. The nobleman named Prince of Cumberland 
woidd become King of Scotland on the death of the reigning 
monarch. See map for Cumberland. 

42 Inverness, look up on map. Macbeth is to receive here Dun- 
can as his guest. 

44 To remain here, and thus to be unemployed in your active 

service, is tiresome to me. 

45 harbinger. See the dictionary. Observe the appropriateness 

of the word here. 
50 Stars, hide your fires. Is Macbeth thinking of the night on 

which he may assassinate the king? 
52 wink at, not see. 

let that be [done] , i.e. the murder. 
54-58 Of whom is Duncan speaking? 

(o) Remark upon the death of Cawdor, (h) Characterize 
Duncan, (c) Does Macbeth's conduct and conversation in 
this scene illustrate the truth of lines 11-12 ? (d) What is 
the new obstacle in Macbeth's way to the throne? (e) How 
is Macbeth affected by it ? 

Act I. Scene V 

Macbeth's castle. The castle at Inverness, built by Malcolm, 
Duncan's son, and still standing in Shakespeare's time, was 
dismantled in 1745. Boswell, who with Dr. Johnson visited 
it in 1773, thus writes : " It perfectly corresponds with 
Shakespeare's description. . . . Just as we came out of it a 
raven perched on one of the chimney-tops and croaked.'' 
2 perfectest report, Macbeth's own observation? or had he in- 
quired of others whether witches prophesy the truth ? 
6 missives, messengers. 
11 dues, the occasion due you as my wife. 

15 the milk of human kindness, the milk of human nature. Mac- 
beth is not without some of those human instincts that we 
drink in, as it were, with our mothers' milk. See kind in 
the dictionary. 



ACT I. SCENE V 91 

17-18 but without The illness should attend it. Thou hast not 
the wickedness that must attend greatness. Lady Macbeth 
does not mean that Macbeth's nature is free from evil. She 
only fears he may shrink from the murder when the occa- 
sion comes. 

20-23 thou'ldst have ... be undone. A. troublesome passage. 
Thou wouldst have, great Glamis, that [the throne] which 
cries "Thus thou must do [kill Duncan], if thou have [at- 
tain] it ; " and that [the murder of Duncan] which, etc. 

27 metaphysical, supernatural. Note that both Macbeth and 
Lady Macbeth believe in the superhuman character of the 
witches. 

29 Thou'rt mad to say it. Why does Lady Macbeth speak thus ? 
Observe that she recovers herself. 

34-35 Who, almost . . . his message : meaning? 

36-38 The raven . . . battlements. The croaking of the raven 
announced the coming of Duncan. There may have been 
no raven at this time under the battlements ; but in her 
excitement Lady Macbeth surely imagines one to be there. 
On the superstition, see Scot, JX, iii : " To prognosticate 
that ghests approch to your house, upon the chattering of 
pies or haggisters, whereof there can be yeelded no probable 
reason, is altogether vanitie and superstition." 

39 mortal thoughts, murderous thoughts. 

42 remorse, relenting, pity. 

43 compunctious visitings of nature, the natural feelings of mercy 

and guilt. 

44 fell, cruel, or deadly. 

46 take my milk for gall, change by your demoniacal powers my 

milk into gall ; stamp out every vestige of humanity in me. 
murdering ministers, ministers of murder. 

47 sightless substances, spiritual essences not visible. 

51 Li this sublime imagery, darkness is regarded as a blanket 
encoiTvpassing the earth. Lady Macbeth would have it so 
thick 4^^ the light of heaven (the divine eye) may not 
penetrate it from above. 

55 This ignorant present. The present time is called ignorant 

because ordinarily we cannot look into the future. 

56 in the instant, in the present moment. 



92 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

61 To beguile the time, to deceive those about you. 

65 Must be provided for. Is there a double meaning here ? 

66 into my dispatch, into my hands to hasten forward. 

69 look up clear, i.e. Avith unclouded face. 

70 favour, face. 

(a) Does Shakespeare give us entire the letter to Lady Mac- 
beth? (b) Why did Macbeth not ask her to prepare for 
the reception of Duncan? (c) When, then, was the letter 
written? (d) Trace the effect upon Lady Macbeth, of 
the letter, the messenger, and the arrival of her husband, 
(e) Are the " murdering ministers " (line 46) the same as 
the witches? (/) What advice does Lady Macbeth give 
her husband? (g) And what is its purpose? (h) Does 
Macbeth seem to hesitate? (?) If you have not already 
done so, notice carefully the versification of lines 36-56. 

Act I. Scene VI 

For Hautboys in stage direction, ''see the dictionary. 

1 seat, situation. 

2 Nimbly, briskly. 

3 our gentle senses, our senses soothed by the gentle air. 

4 martlet. Why "guest of summer "? 
approve, prove. 

5 loved mansionry, abode of love. 

6 Read this line aloud. To get the normal number of accents, 

some would supply cornice after jutty. What do you think 
about it? See Introduction, pp. xxiii and xxv. 

7 coign of vantage, corner peculiarly suitable for building a nest. 
11-14 The love . . . your trouble. This over-refined compliment 

is thus explained by Deighton : " The love that constantly 
w^aits upon us sometimes is vexatious in its importunity, 
and yet, as being love, we give it the thanks due to it. By 
this example I teach you how you should ask God to reward 
us for the pains we have put you to, and thank us, rather 
than blame us, for the trouble we have given you." Duncan 
vaguely hints at honors to IMacbeth that will result from 
his visit. Lady Macbeth so understands him. 
11 sometime = sometimes. 



I 



4 



ACT I. SCENE VII 93 

13 God 'ild us, God jdeld [reward] us. 

16 single, weak, suggested by double in line 15. 

20 hermits, " beadsmen, bound to pray for their benefactors." 

21 coursed, followed closely. 

22 purveyor, a person sent forward to provide, in advance, food 

for the king and his retinue. Observe the accent jDwri-e?/or. 

23 holp, holpen, helped ; once a strong verb, and sometimes so 

used even now. 

25-28 Your servants . . . your own. This is the extreme lan- 
guage of compliment. Lady Macbeth included herself among 
the servants of the king, in compt = accountable. Still = 
always ; this is its usual meaning in Shakespeare. State the 
meaning of the passage in your own language. 

31 The king here gives his hand to Lady Macbeth. 

(rt) Memorize lines 1-10. {b) At what time of day do the 
guests arrive at the castle ? (c) Are Lady Macbeth and 
Duncan sincere in their compliments? (r/) Where is Mac- 
beth? (e) Is Duncan surprised at his absence ? (/) After 
reading the next scene, observe the dramatic purpose of this 
scene. 

Act I. Scene VII 

Sewer, in stage direction, an officer who set and removed dishes, 
tasted them to prove they contained no poison, and brought 
water for the guests to wash their hands with. He here 
leads the servants across the stage to the dining hall, where 
we may suppose Duncan is supping. 

1-2 If it were done . . . quickly. Emphasize the first done, and 
the meaning is clear. 

2-4 if the . . . success. This is an elaboration of the previous 
sentence. Macbeth fears the consequences of the murder. 
Could trammel up, could gather and hold securely as in a 
net ; his surcease, its cessation. His is the old genitive or 
possessive case of the neuter pronoun, and refers to conse- 
quence. Its just coming into use was rarely employed by 
Shakespeare. 
4 that but = if only. 
6 this bank and shoal of time, this life here on earth. Human 



94 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

life is compared to a narrow strip of land extending into an 
ocean. 

7 We'ld . . . come, we would risk the future life. 

8 that = so that. 
10-12 this . . . own lips. What does Macbeth fear here ? 

14 Strong . . . deed. Both reasons — his being my kinsman and 
my being his subject — are strong against the deed. 

17 faculties, his powers as king, prerogatives. 

18 clear, free from reproach. 
20 taking-off = assassination. 
23 sightless couriers of the air, tlie winds. 
25-28 I have . . . other [side]. Explain the metaphor. 

34 would, "require to be," not quite "should" as used to-day. 

37 green and pale, pale green, indicative of the wretched appear- 

ance of a man wakening from intoxication. 

38 freely, spontaneously. 

42 ornament of life, royalty. 

45 the adage : " The cat would eat fish but she will not wet her 

feet." 
47 What beast, etc. Were you then a beast when you suggested 

the murder? Is Lady Macbeth referring to the letter she 

received from her husband, or to a scene which Shakespeare 

leaves to our imagination? 

59 We fail ! In what tone does Lady Macbeth speak this? 

60 sticking-place, where resolution will stick fast. The metaphor 

seems to be taken from the screwing up of the chords of 
stringed instruments to their proper degree of tension at 
which the pegs keep them fast. 

64 wassail, deep drinking. 

convince, overcome. Observe the derivation of the word. 

65-67 the warder . . . limbec only: tvard er = gimrd; receipt, re- 
ceptacle ; Ihnhec = alembic, cap of a still. The metaphor is 
taken from the language of alchemy and mediaeval medicine. 
Tlie wine causes vapors which rise from the stomach to 
the brain and paralyze it. 

68 a death, a sort of death. 

71 spongy, imbibing like a sponge. 

72 quell, murder, but a softer word. 
74 received, generally thought. 



ACT II. SCENE I 95 

77 other, otherwise. 

78 As, seeing that. 

79-80 I am . . . feat. My determination is fixed, and I bend up 
my nerves and sinews to the terrible deed. From what is 
the metaphor taken ? 

(o) To wliat conckision does Macbeth come in his great 
soliloquy ? — State the steps by which he arrives at this 
conclusion, (b) How does Lady Macbeth work upon him ? 

(c) What definite plan of the murder does she suggest? 

(d) What is Macbeth's determination after hearing it? 

(e) From w^hom does the thought of nuirder first proceed? 
(/) Would Macbeth have evei- come to the sticking-place 
without his wife's aid ? (^) What motives lead her to urge 
her husband on ? 

Act II. Scene I 

4-5 There's husbandry . . . out. It is a cloudy night. The 
metaphor is taken from Shakespeare's own observation. 
Thrifty folk would put out their candles early in the even- 
ing to save expense. Hushandry means thrift. 
5 thee is a weak nominative here, used apparently for euphony. 

that, i.e. a sword belt or a dagger.. 
8 cursed thoughts : temptings of ambition, thoughts on what the 
witches prophesied ? or suspicions of Macbeth ? 

14 largess, gifts. 
offices, servants' hall. 

15 withal, with. 

16 shut up, i.e. is shut up, is wrapped up. Shut up, however, 

may be regarded as the past indicative, used intransitively, 
in the sense of concluded. 

19 Which, what is the antecedent? 
free, freely or unhindered. 

25 consent, party, when 'tis, when the result is attained. Mac- 
beth in vague language is promising Banquo honor if he 
will take his side. 

28 franchised, unstained. 

allegiance clear, loyalty to Duncan unsullied. 

31 drink, the night-cup, taken before going to bed. 



96 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

36 fatal vision: sent l)y fate? or fate-bringing? 

44-45 Mine eyes . . . rest. INIacbeth sees the dagger, but it 

eludes his grasp. , 

46 dudgeon, ^vooden haft, ft^-*^ 
gouts, drops, from French goutte. 

50 abuse, deceive. 

51 curtain'd sleep. Why is sleep curtained ? Notice the meter 

of tliis line. 
51-52 witchcraft . . . offerings. Witches are making offerings 
to Hecate. Hecate, in Greek mythology, was the goddess of 
the lower world, and also of witchcraft. The latter lank 
she retained in mediseval demonology. Her the Avitches 
obey, and from her come to the earth phantoms and demons. 
See Hecate in a classical dictionary. The word is dissyllabic 
throughout this play — Hecat(e). 

52 wither'd murder, why " wither'd "? 

53 alarum'd, awakened. 

54 Whose howl's his watch. The periods of the night are an- 

nounced to the murderer by the howls of the wolf. 

55 Tarquin's ravishing stride. For the allusion, see Shake- 

speare's Rape of Lucrece, or a classical dictionary. 

61 gives is the plural once used in the north of England. Shake- 

speare sometimes employs the plural in 5 in preference to the 
Midland, which is the form of modern literary English. 
See T. R. Lounsbury's History of the English Language, 
Part I, pp. 128-129, and Part II, p. 413. 

62 the bell invites me. See line 32. The bell was evidently to 

announce that Lady Macbeth had everything ready for the 
murder, 
(a) What time of day is it? (b) Why is Banquo up so late? 
(c) Wh}' is he armed? ((/) What does Macbeth hint at 
in the conversation? (e) Does Banquo understand him? 
(/) W^hat is Banquo's reply ? (g) Is the dagger sweating 
drops of blood a creation of Macbeth's imagination ? or is it 
a phantom created by evil spirits and thus visible to the 
audience as well as to Macbeth? (h) Was Macbeth re- 
solved to commit the murder before he saw the dagger? — 
See line 42. (i) What effect does the apparition have upon 
his imagination? 



ACT II. SCENE II 97 



Act II. Scene II 

3 the fatal bellman, the belltnan that was sent to condemned per- 
sons the night before execution. The screech of the owl 
was, among the superstitions, an augury of death. — Scot 
XI, XV. 

5 grooms, in general, servants ; specifically, the otHcers attend- 

ing Duncan. 

6 possets. '^ Posset is hot milk poured on ale or sack, having 

sugar, grated bisket, eggs, with other ingredients boiled in 
it, which goes all to a curd." — Clark and AVright. It 
was so thick that it was really eaten not drunk. 

7 That, so that. See I, ii, 59. To this use of that, it will not 

be necessary to call further attention. 
nature, the vital forces. 

8 Macbeth. [Within.] Here Shakesjoeare evidently makes use 

of the rear gallery, or second stage. See Introduction, p. xvi. 

From there Macbeth's exclamation is heard, and perhaps 

he himself is for a moment visible. 
10-11 The attempt ... us. The attempt without the deed would 

ruin us. 
12 'em, the old objective of the personal pronoun, which was hem. 

It is not a contraction of them. 
15 crickets. The cricket, like the owl, foretold death. — Grimm 

quoted by Furxess. 
21: address'd them, prepared themselves. 

27 As, as if. See I, iv, 11. It is no longer necessary to remark 

on this usage. 

28 Listening, listening to. 

37 ravelPd, tangled, sleave, sleave-silk, or floss-silk. 

39 second course, the most substantial course of the feast. 

42 It was as Glamis that Macbeth dallied with temptation. He 

became Cawdor later. See I, iii, 105. 
47 filthy witness, blood. 
56-57 gild and guilt : a play upon words. Is the pun out of 

harmony with the rest of the scene, or does it heighten the 

tragic effect ? 
62 The multitudinous seas incarnadine. A great line. My hand 

will redden the great w^aste of waters, wave on wave, turning 



98 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

the green or blue depths into crimson. Notice here what 
rhetoricians call "onomatopoeia." 

65 so white, so cowardly. 

66 retire we, let us retire. 

68-69 Your constancy ... unattended. Your firmness, which 

was your attendant, has now abandoned you. 
70 nightgown, dressing-gown, or house-gown. 
72 So poorly, so wretchedly. 

(a) Has Lady Macbeth's prayer that she be unsexed been 
granted ? (b) Does she drink a posset ? (c) Does Macbeth 
really hear some one call at line 8? {d) Can you determine 
at what point he stabs Duncan? (e) What is Macbeth's 
state of mind after the murder? (/) Do the grooms really 
cry " murder ! " " God bless us ! " etc. ? (g) Memorize lines 
35-40. (/i) What is the most tremendous incident in the 
scene? (i) What effect does the knocking have uj^on 
Macbeth? (j) What practical advice does Lady Macbeth 
give him? (/.) What is Macbeth's state of mind at the 
close of the scene? (l) How does Shakespeare manage to 
win our sympathy with this scene of murder? 

Act IL Scene HI 
I have omitted several lines from this scene. See page 129. 

2 old, colloquial for lively. 

4 Beelzebub, one of the devils, or one of the devil's many names. 
4-5 farmer . . . plenty. Why should a farmer hang himself on 

the expectation of plenty? Perhaps because he fears that 
he must sell the grain he has on hand at a lower price than 
he expected. 

5 napkins, handkerchiefs, enow, strictly the plural of enough. 

7 other devil's, one of the other devils, as Belial or Abaddon. 

8 equivocator. See equivocate in the dictionary. Perhaps an 

equivocator here = a Jesuit. See page 141. 

10 could not . . . heaven, could not get into heaven by equivocat- 
ing, for God is not to be deceived. 

13 French hose. There were two styles of French hose : some 
were tight fitting, others were large and full. The allusion 
is apparently to the former. Wherein is the jest? 



ACT II. SCENE III 99 

14 goose. Note the play upon the word. 
17-18 the primrose . . . bonfire. See St. Matthew vii. 13. 
19 remember the porter, remember the fee or gratuity. 
22 second cock, towards morning, about three o'clock. 
25 morrow, morning. 

31 physics pain, is a cordial to trouble, or offsets the trouble. 
33 limited, appointed. 
35 unruly, boisterous. 

37 screams of death, screams which seemed to come from per- 
sons dying. 

39 combustion, tumult. 

40 the obscure bird, the bird of darkness, i.e. the owl. See II, 

ii, 3. 
41-42 the earth . . . feverous. The fever is of course ague-fever. 
45-46 AVhat is the force of the double negative here ? 
48-50 Most sacrilegious . . . building. What is the metaphor? 
53 Gorgon. See Gorgon and Perseus in a classical dictionary, 

and then explain the allusion. 
57 death's counterfeit. See the first meaning of counterfeit in 

Webster. 
59 The great doom's image, a representation, as it were, of the 

Judgment Day. 
61 to countenance, to be in harmony with. 
63 calls to parley, calls to conference. From what is the figure 

taken ? 
66 repetition, recital. 
72 chance, event. 
74 nothing serious in mortality, nothing of moment in this 

mortal life. 
76-77. Explain the metaphor. Vault is used here in two senses; 

the vault in which the wine is kept, and the earth under 

the vault of heaven. 
83 badged, marked as with a badge. 
92 expedition, haste, urgency. 
94 laced, meaning? 

98 Unmannerly breech'd with gore, unbecomingly (perhaps, hide- 
ously) clothed with blood. 
100 make's, make his. 
102 argument, subject, theme. L »f G 



100 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 



104 an auger-hole. Treachery is everywhere, and may light on 
us from some unexpected place. The au gar-hole also sug- 
gests the hole made by a dagger. 

106 Our tears . . . brew'd. Emphasize our, in contrast with 
Macbeth 's affected grief; hreuo'd, artificially produced. 

108 naked frailties. All the characters on the stage are in their 
dressing-gowns. 

110 question, talk over, investigate. 

111 Fears and scruples. What are Banquo's fears and scruples? 
113-114. undivulged pretence . . . malice, secret designs of 

treason. ''Pretense" in Shakespeare not infrequently 
means " intent." 

11.5 briefly, quickly. 

manly readiness, the clothing that befits a man. Ready 
meant clad, as unready meant half-clad. 

122 There's daggers. This use of the singular following there 
has the authority of long usage. Compare with il y a in 
French. In general there is nothing to disturb one in 
Shakespeare's use of a singular verb with a plural subject. 
Sometimes the subject is singular in idea though not in 
form. At other times Shakespeare uses the plural in s, 
with w^hich from boyhood he was familiar. Note all these. 
near. The old comparison of the word was nigh, near, next. 
Hence near is the comparative degree. The form nearer 
in the next line, which we now use, is really a double com- 
parative, like ivorser and lesser, which we sometimes hear. 

123-124 This murderous shaft . . . lighted. Malcolm suspects 
that Macbeth yet plans to murder him and his brother. 

126 not be dainty of leave-taking. Let us leave Macbeth without 
the usual ceremonies of the parting guest. 

127-128 there's warrant . . . left. Even the thief is justified in 
escaping when all other hope is lost. 

(a) Coleridge believed (Notes on Macbeth) that the porter's 
speech, for the most part, was not written by Shakespeare. 
What purpose, however, does the scene serve? For a 
masterly defense of the scene, see Transactions of the 
New Shakspere Society for 1874, pp. 255-275. (6) What 
highly poetic phrase does it contain ? (c) How does it 



1 



ACT 11. SCENE IV 101 

happen that Macduff and Lennox are at the gate? (d) Is 
there anythmg strange in Macbeth's appearing so suddenly 
when Macduff inquires after him? (e) What part does 
Macbeth now play, and what slips does he make? (/) Do 
you think that the strange things described in lines 35-4:2 
had led Macduff and Lennox to suspect that something- 
wrong was happening at the castle ? (</) Why does Mac- 
duff call up Banquo, Donalbain, and Malcolm (line 56) ? 
(Ji) With what tone of voice do you think Macduff asked 
" Wherefore did you so " (89) ? (i) At what point of the 
scene is our interest at the highest pitch? (/) Lady 
Macbeth begins by playing a part. But does she only 
pretend to faint or does she faint indeed? (k) From 
Macbeth's conduct, what should you judge was his opinion ? 
(Z) Whither do Duncan's sons flee? 

Act II. Scene IV 

3 sore, sad and dreadful. 

4 Hath trifled former knowings, has made former experiences 

seem trifles. 

7 travelling lamp, the sun laboring on his way. Travel and 

travail, now distinct in meaning, were used by the Eliza- 
bethans, as here, in a combined sense ; and they were spelled 
indifferently either way. 

8 Is't night's . . . shame. Is night extending her sway into 

day, or has day, ashamed of man's act, concealed her face. 
See predominance, second meaning, in Webster. 

12 towering, a term in falconry, applied to hawks that soar to a 

station high in the air. This high station from which the 
hawk swoops upon its prey was called the place. See the 
most interesting account of hawking in The Diary of Master 
William Silence, D. H. Madden, ch. xii. 

13 mousing owl, an owl, which commonly preys on mice, 
was hawked at, was struck at. 

15 the minions, the darlings. 

24 pretend, intend. See note on pretence, II, iii, 113. 

24 suborn'd, secretly instigated. 

28 ravin, devour voraciously. The word is followed by up or down. 



102 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

31 Scone, See map. " The ancient royal city of Scone, supposed 

to have been the capital of the Pictish kingdom, lay two 
miles northward from the present town of Perth. It was 
the residence of the Scottish monarchs as early as the reign 
of Kenneth M'Alpin [844-860], and there was a long series 
of kings crowned on the celebrated stone inclosed in a chair, 
now^ used as the seat of our sovereigns at coronations in 
Westminster Abbey. This stone . . . was transferred by 
Edward I. to Westminster Abbey in 1296. ... An aisle of 
the abbey of Scone remains. A few poor habitations alone 
exist on the site of the ancient royal city." — Knight, 

32 To be invested, to be crowned. 

33 Colme-kill, the kill, or cell, of St. Columba, the modern lona. 

In the sixth centmy St. Columba came here from Ireland, 
and began his missionary w^ork among the druids. In the 
tenth and eleventh centuries it was the burial place of the 
Scotch monarchs. See map. 

36 Fife. See map. Macduff was thane of Fife, 
thither, to Scone. 

38 Lest . . . new. This line continues the thought of the pre- 
vious line which had been interrupted by adieu. 

40 benison, blessing. 

(ci) What portents are described? (&) Why is Macduff so 
reticent? (c) To what class of men does Ross belong? 
(d) What is the Old Man's opinion of him? (e) Do you 
see any reason for this scene ? 

Act III. Scene I 

4 stand, stay, remain, 

7 shine, shine wdth the luster of fulfillment. 
10 Sennet, in stage direction, a particular set of notes played by 

trumpets or cornets, announcing the approach of persons of 

high rank. 

13 all-thing, wholly. 

14 solemn supper, a banquet of state. See Latin solemnitas, a 

festival. 
16 the which, which. What is the antecedent? 
21 grave and prosperous, weighty and successful. 



ACT III. SCENE I 103 

25 the better, very fast, at a good pace. " The better considering 

the distance he has to go." — Clark and Wright. 
29 bloody cousins. To whom does Macbeth refer? 
bestow'd, settled in security. 

32 invention, inventions, lies. 

33 therewithal, in addition to that, cause of state, affairs of state. 
41-42 to make . . . welcome. Though the meaning is clear, the 

construction is not ; icelcome may be regarded as an adjec- 
tive or as a noun. 

43 while, as frequently in Shakespeare and his contemporaries, 
means here until. In this sense it had long been used, 
especially in northern England and in Scotland. 
God be with you, now contracted into good-hij. Write out the 
metrical analysis of this line. 

47-48 To be king is nothing in itself ; what is to be desired is to 
be safely on the throne. 

49 royalty of nature, royal nature, noble nature. 

50 would, lequires to be. 

51 to, in addition to. 

54 Whose being, whose existence. 

55-56 My Genius . . . Cassar. Genius means good angel. Mac- 
beth, when with Banqno, feels that he is in the presence of a 
greater and better man, just as Mark Antony is said by 
Plutarch to have felt when with Cjesar. Plutarch's words 
are paraphrased by Shakespeare in Antony and Cleopatra, 
II, iii, 18-23. 

56 He chid the sisters. Did he chide them ? See I, iii, 57-61. 

64 filed, defiled. 

66 rancours, seems to include hatred and remorse. 

vessel of my peace, peaceful soul. See Romans ix. 22-23. 

67 mine eternal jewel, my immortal spirit. 

68 common enemy of man, the Evil One. 
71 champion = here " challenge." 

to the utterance, the English form of a Voutrance, meaning 
'' to the bitter end." 
76 he, i.e. Ban quo. 

79 pass'd in probation, proved to you in detail. 

80 borne in hand, deceived by false promises. 
82 notion, understanding. 



104 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

87 gospell'd, instructed in the gospels. See St. Matthew v. 44. 

88 To, as to. 

93 Shoughs, dogs with shaggy hair, water-rugs, poodles, demi- 

wolves, dogs bred between wolves and dogs, are clept, are 
called. For Shakespeare's love and knowledge of dogs, see 
The Diary of Master Williayn Silence, D. H. Madden, chs. ii. 
and V. 

94 the valued file, a catalogue in which dogs are set down in 

accordance with their qualities and uses. 

98 Hath in him closed, has endowed him with. 

99 addition, distinguishing title. 

the bill, the catalogue, or unvalued file. 

102 Read the line, expanding worst into a dissyllabic word. 

106-107 While Banquo lives, I am, as it were, a sick man ; but 
were he dead, I should be in perfect health, i.e. my tran- 
quillity would be restored, and my seat on the throne assured. 

109 I am reckless, I care not. 

HI tugg'd with fortune, hauled about by fortune. ^ 

115 bloody distance, a figure taken from fencing, meaning Banquo 
is so near that his thrusts may at any moment prove mortal. 

118 barefaced power, open, direct, unblushing power. 

119 bid my will avouch it, give to my subjects no other reason for 

the deed than that it is my will. 
121-122 but wail . . . down. But as a matter of policy, I must 
bewail the life of him whom I strike down. Who is objective. 

128 advise, inform. 

129 Acquaint you, i.e. I will acquaint you. 

the perfect spy o' the time. This is one of the most difficult 
expressions in the play. " The perfect spy o' the time " may 
mean the most opportune time for committing the deed. 
Then the following " the moment on't " (the moment of 
the time) is repetitious or explanatory. " The perfect spy 
o' the time " may refer to a person who is to inform the two 
murderers when the attack on Banquo is to be made, i.e. 
to the third murderer, who appears in the third scene. If 
the latter explanation is adopted, then "the moment on't" 
means the moment when the murder is to be committed. 
131 something from, at some distance from. Something is used 
adverbially, in the sense of somewhat. 



ACT III. SCENE II 105 

131-132 always . . . clearness, it being always thought [kept in 

mind] that I require a clearness [to be kept clear from 

suspicion]. 
133 rubs, hindrances. The figure is taken from bowling. " When 

a bowl was diverted from its course by an impediment, it was 

said to rub." — Clark and Wright. 
137 Resolve yourselves, take final counsel. 
139 straight, straightway, immediately. 

(a) What information does Macbeth get from Banquo? 
(6) Why does Macbeth wish to be rid of Banquo? (c) Are 
the two murderers professional assassins? (d) How does 
Macbeth work upon them ? (e) Had Macbeth sj)oken to 
them before in regard to the murder? (/) Why does not 
Macbeth with barefaced power sweep Banquo from his sight ? 
{g} What is the meaning of lines 70-71 ? 



Act III. Scene II 

3 attend, await. 

10 Using, occupying yourself with. 

13 scotch'd, cut across on the surface. 

14 close, gather herself up. be herself, be whole, be what she was 

before ; poor, feeble. 
16 the frame of things, the universal frame, the universe, dis- 
joint, fall apart, both the worlds, heaven and earth, suffer, 
suffer death, perish. Observe the number and the place 
of the stressed syllables in this line. 

21 torture, rack. 

22 ecstasy, agony. This word once denoted emotions of pain as 

well as of joy. 

23 fitful fever, intermittent fever ? or mad fever ? 

25 Malice domestic, insurrections at home, foreign levy, foreign 
invasion. Illustrate in the case of Duncan. 

27 Gentle my lord, my gentle lord, commonly so written in Shake- 
speare. Thus : " Gracious my lord," " Sweet my mother." 
sleek o'er, smooth over. 

30 Pay particular attention to Banquo. Observe, in reading, re- 
memh\_e']rance. 



106 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

31 Present him eminence, sliow that you regard him as the chief 

guest. 

32 Unsafe the while, that we, being unsafe the while in that we. 

The line is hopelessly corrupt. It is certainly not clear why 
it is unsafe to flatter Banquo. It has been suggested that 
we read : One chafes the while that we. Though it is not to be 
thought for a moment that Shakespeare wrote one chafes, 
yet this substitution fits the meaning of the following lines. 

34 vizards, visors, masks. 

35 this, what ? 

38 But in them nature's copy's not eterne. " The deed by which 
man holds life of Xature gives no right to perpetual tenure. 
Nature is here compared to a lord of the manor under whom 
men hold their lives by copyhold tenure." — Clark and 
Wright. See copyhold in the dictionary. What does Lady 
Macbeth hint at ? Does Macbeth understand her ? 

41 cloister'd flight, flight in the cloisters. 

black Hecate's summons. Here Hecate, tlie goddess of sorcery, 
is associated with night, the time of incantations. 

42 shard-borne beetle, beetle borne on its shards, or stiff wings. 

See shard in the dictionary. 

43 yawning peal, peal conducive to yawning. 

44 dreadful note, a deed that will be marked with dread, 

45 chuck, chick. 

46 seeling. This is a term of falconry. To seal is to sew up the 

eyelids of a hawk. The newly taken hawk w^as thus blinded 
until tamed. 

47 Scarf up, cover as wdth a scarf. Write a metrical analysis of 

this line. 
49 that great bond, the lives of Banquo and Fleance, leased to 

them by nature. 
51 rooky wood, misty or gloomy wood. See Scotch reuk, smoke. 

Perhaps, however, rooky means /wZ/ of rooks. 
53 night's black agents, robbers, assassins, evil spirits. 

(a) Why does Lady Macbeth inquire after Banquo? (h) 
Is her mind at peace ? (c) What is Macbeth's great " afflic- 
tion " ? {d) Does he envy Duncan his death ? (e) What 
terras of endearment does he use in addressing his wife? 



ACT III. SCENE IV 107 

(/) Is he sincere in them? (g) Why does he not tell her 
frankly his plans? (h) Have Macbeth and Lady Macbeth 
changed since the murder of Duncan, i.e. is there develop- 
ment of character? (i) What are the great lines in this 
scene? (J ) What notable observations of nature? 

Act III. Scene III 

2-4 He needs . . . just. The second nmrderer says this to the 
first murderer. There is no need of distrusting the third 
murderer, since his directions are in perfect accord vnth 
those received from Macbeth. 
6 lated = belated. 

10 note of expectation, list of guests expected. 

11 horses. See Introduction, p. xvii. 

(«) Was the third murderer hinted at earlier (III, i, 129) ? 
(b) What in this scene might lead one to suspect that the 
third murderer is Macbeth himself in disguise? (c) At 
what time of day is Banquo killed ? (d) Which murderer 
put out the torch? (e) How far does the plan of murder 
succeed ? 

Act hi. Scene IV 

1 degrees, ranks ; hence, seats. 
1-2 at first And last, once for all. 

5 her state, chair of state, a chair with a canopy over it. 

6 require, ask her to give. 

9 See . . . thanks, i.e. observe the bows and acknowledgments 
of tJie guests. 

11 large, liberal. 

anon, in a moment, i.e. after stepping to the door. 

14 'Tis better to have the6 without than that he should be within. 
If he may be regarded as an objective, then the meaning is : 
It (the blood) is better without you, i.e. on your face, than 
within him. If the first interpretation be adopted, then the 
line is an aside. I prefer to consider he as objective. See 
who, line 42. 

19 nonpareil, one without equal. 

21 fit, ague-fit, or moods of madness. See III, ii, 23. 



108 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

23 casing = encasing. 

24 Observe the accumulation of synonyms. 

25 saucy, intruding, impudent. 

28 The least . . . nature, the least of which would kill a man. 

29 worm, serpent, here means young serjoent. 

32 We'll hear ourselves again, we will talk with each other again. 

33 the cheer, the welcome, the invitation to eat, drink, and be 

merry. 
the feast is sold, as at an inn. 
3-1 vouch'd, affirmed. 

35 to feed, merely to feed. 

36 From thence, away from home, 
ceremony, good manners and courtesy. 

40 roof'd, under this roof. 

41 graced, gracious. 

42-43 Who . . . mischance, whom I hope I may accuse of un- 
kindness rather than pity for some mishap by the way. 
Who is objective. 

50-51 Whom is Macbeth addressing? 

55 upon a thought, in the time it takes to think, i.e. in a moment. 

57 shall offend, will surely annoy. 

extend his passion, prolong his agitation. 

58 Are you a man ? To whom addressed ? 

60 proper stuff ! excellent nonsense ! 

61 painting of your fear, creation of your fear. 

63 flaws and starts, gusts of wind ; fits of mad emotion and the 

consequent violent movements. 

64 to, compared with. 

66 Authorized, declared to be true. Note the accent authorized. 

67 faces, grimaces. 

72-73 our monuments . . . maws of kites, our tombs shall be the 
stomachs of kites. Hereafter Macbeth will have the corj^ses 
of his enemies eaten by kites, that they may not return to 
trouble him. 

76 humane, as used here means both human and humane. In 
Shakespeare's time, the two words were spelled indifferently, 
the gentle weal, the commonweal, the commonwealth condu- 
cive to order and comity. 

81 twenty mortal murders, twenty deadly wounds. See line 27. 



ACT III. SCENE IV 109 

84 lack, miss. 

85 muse, wonder. 

91 thirst, drink. 

92 And all to all, and all drink to all. 

95 no speculation, no power of sight, or perhaps no light of 
intellect. 
100-103 It was a current belief that spirits could assume any 
shape or appearance that they wished. See Scot concerning 
Divels and Spirits, ch. xvii. 
101 arm'd, i.e. by its hard and tough hide. 

Hyrcan. Hyrcania w^as a name given to a country of vague 
boundaries southeast of the Caspian Sea. 

105 If trembling I inhabit. This is one of the most difficult lines 

of the play, though the general meaning is clear. We may 
take inhabit to mean remain, or stay at home. We may, 
perhaps, force it to mean possess or occupy . Then we have 
respectively " if I remain trembling," " if trembling with 
fear, I stay at home," and " if I possess trembling," i.e. if 
I tremble. Those who think trembling is a noun, usually 
regard inhabit as an error for inherit, though that is not 
necessary. 
protest, proclaim. 

106 The baby of a girl, a weak baby, or perhaps a doll. 

107 Unreal mockery, appearance without substance. 

109 displaced, upset. 

110 most admired disorder, disorder which awakens the greatest 

wonder. 

111 overcome, overshadow. 

112-113 You make ... I owe. I cannot understand my own 
mood, etc. disposition, mood, owe, own or possess. 

122 It stands for what? 

123 Stones . . . move. Stones, it is said, have been known to 

move from the corpse of a murdered man ; and thus by 
revealing the murder they may be said to have led to the 
discovery of the murderer, 
trees to speak. Speaking trees were common in poetry and 
romance. See Vergil's jEneid, III, 22-68; and Spenser's 
Faery Queen, I, ii, st. 31. 

124 Augures, augurs or auguries, soothsayers or soothsaying. 



110 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

understood relations, the hidden relations between things 
understood only by soothsayers ; as, for example, the rela- 
tions between the behavior of birds and a murder. 
125 magot-pies, magpies, choughs, jackdaws. Note that all the 
birds mentioned are talking birds, which are represented 
as having betrayed murderers. 

127 at odds with, in contention with ; it is almost morning. 

128 How say'st thou, that Macduff denies. What do you say to 

Macduff's denying, etc. 
130 by the way, indirectly. 
133 betimes, early. 
138 as go o'er, as to go over the stream. 

140 scann'd, by whom? 

141 You are in need of sleep, the period of rest, that keeps all 

creatures in a normal condition. 
142-144 My strange . . . deed. My strange self-delusion is only 
that fear which initiates crime ; I am still lacking in that 
long practice in crime which hardens the mind. 

142 and joins strange and self. 
144 deed = crime. 

(a) How do Macbeth and Lady Macbeth conduct themselves 
at their first great banquet? (6) Do you now think that 
Macbeth was the third murderer of the preceding scene? 
(c) If he was, how do you account for his asides f (d) 
Does the ghost of Banquo come uninvited (see HI, i, 27) ? 
(e) What is the occasion of the ghost's return? (/) Does 
it speak? (g) W^hat gestures does it make? (h) Does 
any one on the stage besides Macbeth see it? (i) Should, 
then, the ghost actually appear on the stage? (j) Can you 
admit that the ghost is seen by the audience and Macbeth, 
but not by Lady Macbeth and the guests? (k) Does 
Macbeth seem to have any power over the ghost? (l) 
Have JNlacbeth and Lady Macbeth the same energy of will 
that characterized them before the assassination of Dun- 
can? ^Discuss fully, (m) What system of espionage has 
Macbeth adopted for his safety ? (n) Whom does he par- 
ticularly fear? 



ACT III. SCENE VI 111 

Act III. Scene V 

1 angerly, angrily. 

2 beldams, hags. 

7 close, secret. 

13 Loves, courts you. 

15 at the pit of Acheron, at the entrance to Hades. 

24 vaporous drop profound, a drop possessing occult properties. 

26 sleights, cunning contrivances. 

29 confusion, destruction. 

32 security, overconfidence. 

33 " Come away, come away," etc. This song is found in a play 

by Thomas Middleton, entitled lite Witch, written some 
years after Macbeth. See The Witch, III, iii. The first two 
lines run thus : — 

'* Come away, come away, 
Hecate, Hecate, come away ! " 

(a) Has Hecate been mentioned before? {h) In what relation 
does Hecate stand to the witches? (c) Why does she scold 
them? (c/) Whither is she going and for what purpose? 
(e) Do you understand how the apparitions of witchcraft 
were believed to be produced? 

Act hi. Scene VI. 

1-2 have . . . further, have been in full harmony with your own 
thoughts, and they (your thoughts) may expand further my 
meaning, i.e. the meaning of the lines following. 

3 borne, conducted. 

4 marry, a corruption of Mary, an oath by the Virgin Mary, 

here a very mild asseveration, like our "indeed." 
was dead, died. 

8 Who cannot want the thought, who can fail to think. Observe 

the negative; and also monst[Q~\rous. 
10 fact, crime. 
19 an, if. 
21 from broad words, on account of plain-spoken words. 

24 The son of Duncan. Which son ? 

25 tyrant, usurper. 



112 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

27 Of, by. Edward, Edward the Confessor. 

29 his high respect, the high respect due him. 

30 upon his aid, in his aid. 

36 faithful homage, i.e. not the insincere homage we pay to a 
usurper, free honours, the honors due to freemen. 

38 exasperate, exasperated. The Elizabethans frequently clipped 
the past participles of the final (/, if tlie word were of Latin 
origin. 

40 absolute, positive. 

41 me, an ethical dative, which adds some vivacity to the narrative. 

42 hums, mumbles. 

as who, as if one ; " who " is an indefinite pronoun. 
44 Advise him, warn him (Macduff). 

48-49 suffering country Under a hand accursed, country suffering 
under a hand accursed. 

(a) Point out the irony in the first speech of Lennox, (b) 
Why is Macduff " in disgrace " V (c) What indications 
have we in this scene of the forces to be lined up against 
Macbeth ? 

Act IV. Scene I 

1 brinded, brindled, streaked. 

2 Thrice and once. Witchcraft avoids even numbers, 
hedge-pig, hedge-hog. 

3 Harpier, perhaps a corruption of harpy. This " familiar " of the 

third witch cries from her station in the air. So just pre- 
viously the cat mewed and the hedge-hog whined. These 
sounds are warnings to the witches that it is time to weave 
the charm, for Macbeth is coming. 
6 Observe the meter. Some would expand cold into a dissyllable. 
8 Swelter'd, exuded. 
12 Slice of a snake from the fen. 
14 newt, small lizard. 
16 Adder's fork, adder's forked tongue. 

blind-worm, slow worm, blind and poisonous. 
23 Witches' mummy. Mummy, a spiced preparation made from 
dead bodies, was used in Shakespeare's time as a medicine. 
Nothing could be more loathsome than that made from the 
carcasses of witches. 



ACT IV. SCENE I 113 

23 maw and gulf, stomach and gullet. 

24 ravin'd, ravenous. 

27 The yew, perhaps because it grows luxuriantly in churchyards, 

was regarded as uncanny and poisonous. 

28 Sliver'd, pulled off in slivers. 

31 drab, harlot. 

32 slab, slimy. 

33 chaudron, entrails. 

37 Observe the accent of hdbooyi's. 

43 " Black spirits," etc. This song is found in Middleton's Witch, 

V, ii. The first two lines run thus : — 

" Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray, 
Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may! " 

Demons could assume any color as well as any form ; they 
were commonly white, black, red, or gray. — See Shakespeare 
Notings, appended to B. Nicholson's edition of Scot's Dis- 
coverie. 

44 pricking of my thumbs. Sensations of this kind, which could 

not be accounted for, were regarded as ominous. 
50 I call upon you by the knowledge of the future which you 

profess to have. Observe the accent on conjin-e. 
55 bladed corn, corn in the blade, which only heavy winds could 

lodge. 

59 nature's germens, nature's germs, nature's elements. 

60 sicken, grow sick of its work. 
63 Who are the "masters"? 

65 nine farrow, nine pigs which compose the litter. A sow not 
infrequently will eat her offspring. This act was believed 
to be the work of witchcraft. Observe the form sweaten. 

67-68 Come . . . show. This is an invocation to the apparitions 
to appear. 

68 an armed Head, a helmet-covered head severed from the body ; 
symbolically Macbeth's own head. 

70 say thou nought, for speech would dissolve the spell. 

74 harp'd my fear aright, struck the keynote of my fear. 

76 a bloody Child, symbolically Macduff. 

83 double sure, for I will have a bond as well as a promise, 
double =1 doubly. 



114 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

84 take a bond of fate, i.e. by slaying Macduff. 

85 pale-hearted. What is the meaning of the epithet? 

86 a Child crowned, with a tree in his hand, symbolically Mal- 

colm. 

88-89 the round And top of sovereignty, the crown, the summit 
of sovereign power. 

93 " Birnam Hill is distant about a mile from Dunkeld; and the 
two old trees, which are believed to be the last remains of 
Birnam Wood, grow by the riverside, half a mile from the 
foot of the hill. The hills of Birnam and Dunsinane must 
have been excellent posts of observation in time of war, 
both commanding the level country which lies between 
them, and various passes, lochs, roads, and rivers in other 
directions. Birnam Hill, no longer clothed with forest, 
but belted with plantations of young larch, rises to the 
height of 1040 feet, and exhibits, amidst the heath, ferns, 
and mosses, which clothe its sides, distinct traces of an 
ancient fort, which is called Duncan's Court. Tradition 
says that Duncan held his court there. The Dunsinane 
hills are visible, at the distance of twelve miles, from every 
part of its northern side." — Knight. See map. 
On the pronunciation of Dunsinane, see Introduction, p. xxiv. 

95 impress, press into service. 

96 bodements, prophecies. 

100 mortal custom, custom of mortals. 

106 noise, music. 

Ill A show, a dumb-show. The eight kings are the royal descend- 
ants of Banquo who are to rule Scotland. They are identi- 
fied with the Stuarts, and thus Shakespeare pays a 
compliment to his king. The eiglith bears a magic glass 
or mirror in which are seen vaguely the descendants of 
James the First of England. 

117 crack of doom, the peal of thunder announcing the Last Day. 

121 two-fold balls. James the Sixth of Scotland became, in 1603, 

James the First of England, 
treble sceptres, standing for England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
or for Great Britain, France, and Ii-eland ; more likely for 
the latter. 

122 Observe the metrical structure of this line. 



ACT IV. SCENE 11 115 

123 blood-bolter'd, matted with blood, said in reference to Ban- 
qno's hair. 

126 amazedly, amazed. 

127 sprites, spirits. These words were spelled and probably pro- 

nounced indifferently either way. 
130 antic round, quaint dance. 
14:4 anticipatest, preventest. 
145 flighty, fleeting. 
147 firstlings, first offspring. 
153 That trace him in his line, i.e. his descendants. Observe the 

meter. 

(a) What forms are assumed by the three familiars of the 
witches? — See also I, i. (h) What are the ingredients of 
the cauldron? (c) Why are they made so loathsome? (d) 
What is the purpose of the mixture? (e) Does Macbeth 
meet the witches by accident, as in I, iii? (/) Does 
Shakespeare suggest the moral harmony between the witches 
and Macbeth ? (g) Compare the prophecies of this scene 
wdth those in I, iii. (h) -Is Macbeth disturbed by the three 
apparitions? (i) How does he like the "show of eight 
kings " ? (j ) Whence come these apparitions ? — See " our 
masters," line 63. (^-) What indications are there of the 
retribution that is to follow Macbeth's crimes ? (/) What 
new crime does he resolve upon ? (rn) What leads him to 
the resolution ? 

Act IV. Scene II 

4 Our fears do make us traitors. Our fears lead us to behave as 
if we were traitors. Illustrate in the case of Macduff. 

7 titles, what one has a title to, possessions. 

9 the natural touch, the feeling common to all creatures, as is 
illustrated by the " poor wren." "~ 

11 Her young ones in her nest, her young ones being in her nest. 

14 coz, diminutive of cousin. 

15 school yourself, moderate your passion, for, as for. 

17 The fits o' the season, the convulsions of the time. As else- 
wdiere in this play, w^e have a figure from intermittent fever. 
19 do not know ourselves, i.e. to be traitors. 
I 



116 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

19-20 when we hold . . . fear, ^vllell we credit rumors because 
we fear them to be true, and yet do not know precisely what 
we fear. 

22 Each way and move, in ail directions, il/ot-e = direction. The 
line is probably corrupt. It has been suggested that Shake- 
speare wrote : A?id each icay move or Each way loe move. 

24-25 Things . . . before. The figure is taken from the wheel 
of Fortune. Illustrate. 

29 my disgrace and your discomfort. Is Ross about to weep ? 

30 Sirrah, used to an inferior ; here, of course, playfully. 

34 lime, birdlime. See the dictionary. 

35 gin, snare. 

65 Though with your rank and condition I am perfectly ac- 

quainted. 

66 doubt, fear. 

70 To do worse to you, i.e. not to inform you of your danger, 
fell, deadly. 

82 shag-hair'd. The First Folio has shag-ear'd. The murderers 

seem to have worn rough wigs to conceal their features. 
egg, unhatched chicken. 

83 Young fry of treachery, spawn of traitors. 

(a) Why has Ross come to Macduff's castle ? (b) In what 
way does Lady Macduff regard her husband as a traitor? 
(c) Whence comes the messenger? {d) What are the 
means Shakespeare employs in this scene to awaken intense 
pity ? (e) Why does not Shakespeare have the mother as 
well as the son murdered on the stage ? (/) How does this 
crime differ from all others for which Macbeth is responsi- 
ble? (^) Show how he has fallen step by step. Qi) How 
do you now^ regard him ? 

Act IV. Scene III 

3 the mortal sword, the sword that kills. 
good, brave. 

4 Bestride . . . birthdom, defend the country of our birth. The 

figure in bestride is taken from warfare. The retainer would 
bestride his fallen lord and defend him from attack. 
8 Like syllable of dolour, like cry of grief. 



ACT IV. SCENE III 117 

10 to friend, as a friend, or friendly. 

12 whose sole name, whose name alone. 

15-16 wisdom To offer up, it would be wisdom to offer up. 

19-20 may recoil In an imperial charge, may swerve from the right 

when the commands of a king are laid upon him. From 

what is the metaphor taken? 
21 transpose, change, i.e. good into evil, or evil into good. 

24 still look so, i.e. still look as grace looks. 

I have lost my hopes, for Macduff expected a different recep- 
tion. 

25 even there, i.e. in abandoning wife and child, as is explained 

in what follows. 

26 rawness, hurry. 

27 motives. The word here refers to wife and child, motives to 

keep Macduff in Scotland. 
29-30 Let not . . . safeties. I am suspicious (jealous), not that 
I may dishonor you but that I may guard myself. 

33 wear thou thy wrongs. For what or for whom does thou stand? 

34 affeer'd, confirmed, or settled. See the dictionary. 

43 gracious England, the gracious king of England, Edward the 
Confessor. 

48 more sundry ways, in more various ways. 

49 What should he be ? What kind of man must he be? 

51 particulars, forms. 

52 open'd, unfolded, like buds or leaves. 
55 confineless, boundless. 

55-57 Not in the legions . . . Macbeth. Among the multitudes 
of devils and lost souls, there is no being who excels Macbeth 
in iniquity. 

58 Luxurious, lascivious. 

59 Sudden, of violent temper. 
64 continent, constraining. 

66-67 Boundless . . . tyranny. Boundless self-indulgence of the 
passions common to all human beings is a usurpation, for it 
dethrones the will. 

71 Convey, obtain secretly. 

72 so hoodwink, so blind. 

77 ill-composed affection, monstrous propensities. 
80 his jewels, this one's jewels. 



118 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

82 forge, fabricate. 
'' 84-86 This avarice . . . lust. Lust, like the heat of summer, 
comes and goes ; but avarice permeates and vitiates the 
whole moral nature. 

88 foisons, plenteous crops. 

89 Of your mere own, of what is wholly your own. 
portable, endurable. 

90 When counterpoised with good qualities. Observe the use of 

other. 

92 verity, truthfulness, temperance, self-restraint. 

93 Notice the accQwi, persecerance. 

94 Devotion, piety. 

95 relish, flavor. 

96 In the division of each several crime, in the subdivisions of 

each several crime. 
99 Uproar, drown in uproar, confound, throw into confusion. 

104 bloody-scepter' d, with the blood of his king and subjects on 

his scepter. 

105 wholesome days, days of health and peace. 

107 interdiction. The allusion is to the interdict or the decree 

issued by the Pope against those who disobey his com- 
mands. By his own confession, Malcolm has issued such 
a decree against himself. 

108 blaspheme, slander, breed, lineage, ancestors. 
112 repeat'st, recitest. 

118 trains, deceitful ways. 

125 For strangers, as strangers, as foreign. 

126 never was forsworn, never was guilty of perjury. 
135 at a point, fully equipped 

136-137 the chance of goodness . . . quarrel! May our good 
fortune equal the justice of our cause ! 

142 stay, await, convinces, overcomes. 

143 The great assay of art, the greatest efforts of the skilled 

physician. ^ 

145 presently, at once. 

146 the evil, scrofula, called "the king's evil," because it was 

believed to be cured by the touch of the king. Edward 
the Confessor is reputed to have performed these marvel- 
ous cures. Of later sovereigns, James I. frequently touched 



ACT IV. SCENE III 119 

for the disease, and the practice was continued by Charles 
I., Charles II., and Queen Anne. 

149 solicits heaven, gains the favor of heaven. 

150 strangely-visited, strangely afflicted. Disease was regarded 

as a visitation of heaven. 

152 mere despair, utter despair. 

153 golden stamp, a stamped coin of gold. 
156 With, besides. 

159 That speak him full of grace, that proclaim him in special 
favor with heaven. 

167 But who knows nothing, except in the case of those who know 
nothing of what is going on. 

169 not mark'd, not observed, as they are so common. 

170-171 the dead ... for who. For whom the knell is ringing 
there is hardly an inquiry. Observe that wlio is objec- 
tive. 

172 flowers in their caps [wither] . 

173 or ere, variants of the Anglo-Saxon cer, meaning hefore. 
173-174 0, relation . . . true ! O, tale, too fancifully minute, and 

yet too true ! 

175 doth hiss the speaker, for it is already stale. 

176 teems, gives birth to. 

177 Observe the use of loell. 

183 that were out, that were in the field against Macbeth. 

184 witnessed the rather, further attested. 

185 For that, because. 
191 none, there is none. 
195 latch, catch. 

196-197 a fee-grief Due to some single breast, a grief to be ren- 
dered to one person only. K fee-grief is a grief in fee sim- 
ple, one's own grief. The figure is taken from absolute 
ownership of land, i.e. ownership in fee simple. 

197 No mind, there is no mind. 

202 possess them with, make them acquainted with. 

206 quarry. " Derived, like most terms of venery, from Norman 
French, it originally signified the square (carre ), whither 
the slaughtered deer were brought when the chase was over 
for the purpose of being viewed and broken up. . . . The 
word was next applied to a heap of slaughtered game, such 



120 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

as was collected in the quariy." — The Diary of Master 

William Silence, p. 246. 
210 Whispers, same as the present " whispers to." _ 

o'er-fraught, overbnrdened. ' 

212 And I must be from thence ! And I was compelled to be away ! 
216 He, i.e. Macbeth. 

220 Dispute it like a man, strive against your grief like a man. 
225 naught, worthless. 
229 Convert, turn. 
232 intermission, delay. 
237 Our lack . . . leave. All that is now wanting is to take leave 

of the king. 
238-239 the powers . . . instruments, the heavenly powers are 

now setting to w^ork their instruments of retribution. 

Notice the meter of line 239. 

(a) Why should Malcolm fear Macduff? (/>) What motive 
has he for misrepresenting himself? (c) What are "the 
king-becoming virtues " ? {d) By what means does Mal- 
colm recognize Ross as his countryman (160) ? (e) What 
is the state of Scotland as reported by Ross? (/) How 
does Ross break the awful news to Macduff? (^) What 
noble attribute does Macduff possess ? (Ji) What rhetorical 
passages in this scene? (i) Why is the scene so long? 
(y) Does any passage seem to have been written as a com- 
pliment to James the First? 

Act V. Scene I 

3 into the field. See IV, iii, 185. 

4 nightgown, dressing-gown. 

9 effects, actions, watching, waking. 
18 stand close, remain concealed. 
23 sense, perception, ability to see things. 
29 Yet . . . spot. After all my rubbing, a spot remains. 
42 Go to, as used here, an exclamation of reproach. 

you, i.e. Lady Macbeth. 
49 charged, oppressed. 

50-51 for the dignity of the whole body, for all the dignity of 
Lady Macbeth the Queen. 



ACT V. SCENE II 121 

53 Pray God it be [well] . 

59 on's, on his. As must have been noticed, Shakespeare fre- 
quently uses on where we should now use of. 

71 means of all annoyance, all means of harm, i.e. of committing 

suicide. 

72 still, ever. 

73 mated, bewildered. "The word [mate], originally used at 

chess, from the Arabic shah mat, ' the king is dead,' whence 
our 'check-mate,' became common in one form or other in 
almost all European languages." — Clark and Wright. 

(a) In what scene did Lady Macbeth last appear ? Qi) Did 
she have any part in planning the murder of Lady Macduff ? 
(c) Why does she walk in her sleep? (d) When did she 
begin this sleep walking? (e) Why does she write upon 
paper, etc. (5-6) ? (/) Why does she want a light by her 
at night? {g) In lines 32-37, what scene is she living over 
in her dreams ? (Ji) No more o' that . . . this starting 
(4:0-4:1), — what is she thinking of? (i) In lines 57-59, 
what is she recalling? (_/) And what in lines 61-63? 
(k) What is her most intense expression of remorse? 
(Z) Do we feel pity for Lady Macbeth in this scene? 
(m) Was the gentlewoman aware of the cause of Lady Mac- 
beth's walking? (n) Why is she unwilling to repeat what 
her mistress has said on former occasions? (o) Was the 
Doctor aw^are of a report that Duncan and Banquo had been 
murdered? (p) At what point in the scene is he assured of 
the crimes? 

Act V. Scene II 

1 power, army. 

2 His uncle Siward, earl of Northumberland. Duncan, according 

to the history current in Shakespeare's time, married a 
daughter of Siward. Hence the great earl was Malcolm's 
grandfather. Shakespeare loosely calls him uncle. 

3 Revenges, each having a different cause of revenge. See loves, 

III, i, 121. 
dear causes, the causes which come nearest home to the heart 
of each. 



122 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

4 the bleeding and the grim alarm, the alarm announcing blood 

and horror. 

5 Excite the mortified man, awaken the dead. 
8 file, muster-roll. 

10 unrough, beardless. 

11 protest, proclaim, as in ITI, iv, 105. 

12 For the pronunciation of Duns inane, see Introduction, p. xxiv. 

13 lesser, less. This double comparative still has the authority 

of good usage. See also I, iii, 65. 
15-16 He cannot hold together his disorganized party. 

18 minutely revolts, revolts springing up every minute, 
faith-breach, breach of ikith, usurpation of the throne. 

19 in command, when commanded. 

20 Nothing, not at all. 

23 pester'd, ever troubled. 

27 medicine, French medecin, physician, i.e. Malcolm, 
weal, commonweal, commonwealth. 

30 To dew, to bedew, to freshen. The word sovereign seems to 
have been suggested by the metaphor in the lines just 
above. A sovereign remedy was a common expression, 
meaning the most potent remedy. 

(a) What definite new^s have we now of the forces in array 
against Macbeth ? (b) In the scene before this where was 
Macbeth reported to be ? (c) AVhere is he now ? (d) How 
well is he succeeding in holding together an army? (e) 
What is the purpose of this scene? 

Act V. Scene III 
1 them, the thanes. 
3 taint, become infected. 

5 All mortal consequences, all that will happen to mortals. 
What is the case of 7ne? 

8 epicures. See the word in the dictionary. The Scotch, who 

lived much more simply than the English, naturally looked 
upon their neighbors as epicures. 

9 The mind I sway by, the mind by which I am directed. 

11 loon, rogue. 

12 goose look, cowardly pale face. 



ACT V. SCENE IV 123 

13 Observe is, preceded by there and followed by a plural subject. 

See II, iii, 122. 

14 over-red, redden. 

15 lily-liver'd. The liver was regarded as the seat of courage. 

In cowards it was white, or bloodless. 
patch, fool. 

16 linen cheeks, white as linen. 

17 Are counsellors to fear, awaken fear. 

20 push, assault. 

21 disseat, unseat. 

22 my way of life, " my course of life " or simply " my life." 

23 sear, dry, withered. 

28 poor, troubled, deny, refuse. 

35 moe, more, skirr, scour. 

42 Raze out, efface. 

43 oblivious antidote, antidote producing forgetfulness. 

44 Note the quibble. 

48 staff, the general's baton. 

50 Come, sir, dispatch. To whom is Macbeth speaking? 

cast, diagnose. 
52 purge, cleanse by medicine. 

58 it, a part of his armor pulled off in line 54. To whom is 

Macbeth speaking? 

59 bane, ruin, destruction. 

(a) What awakens Macbeth to violence of word and action ? 

(b) Show in detail how his mood changes through the scene. 

(c) In what lines does he become eloquent? (d) Is he still 
brave in the face of danger? (e) What is the appearance 
of the servant ? (/) What means " Therein the patient 
must Minister to himself" (4.5-46)? (g) Does Macbeth 
apply this observation to himself? (/*) Macbeth can no 
longer look for help from his wife and his followers. On 
what, however, does he still rely? 

Act V. Scene IV 

2 That chambers will be safe, in which our homes will be safe. 

nothing, in no respect. 
5 shadow, keep unseen. 



124 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

6 discovery, i.e. the scouts. 

9 Keeps still, continues to remain. 

10 Our setting down before't, our investment of it. Note setting, 

as an intransitive verb. 

11 For when an opportunity is given them. 

12 Both more and less, persons of all classes. 

14-15. Let our . . . event. For proof of their correctness, let our 
opinions await the issue, i.e. let us stop talking and make 
ready to fight. 

18 What our credits and our debits are, how our books stand. 

19 The hopes to which our thoughts give utterance are not to be 

trusted. Write out a metrical analysis of this line. 

20 The decisive issue must be determined by blows. 

(a) In what way is the prophecy of the witches beginning 
to be fulfilled? (/>) Why do Macduff and Siward check 
Malcolm ? 

Act V. Scene V 

5 Were not the English reen forced by my own thanes. 

6 dareful, i.e. in the open field. 

10 cool'd, congealed. 

11 fell of hair, scalp and hair. 

12 dismal treatise, such as a ghost story. 

13 As, as if. 

15 start, startle. 

17 She should have died hereafter. Were she not dead now, she 

must have died hereafter. It's all one. 

18 such a word, i.e. the announcement of her death. 

20 Observe the subject of creeps. 

21 recorded time, time represented by the record of events. 
22-23 And all . . . dusty death. Shakespeare may be thinking 

of the torch leading the procession of the dead to the dark 

and dusty crypt. There is the further thought that our life 

ends in a return to dust. 
21 Write a metrical analysis of this line. 
25 frets, chafes. 
37 this three mile. This is an anomalous expression, surviving 

from the English of an earlier time. Mile is really a plural, 



ACT V. SCENE VII 125 

See the declension of the 
Anglo-Saxon mil and ^es. 
40 cling thee, shrivel thee up. 
sooth, truth. 

42 pull in, rein in. 

43 equivocation, ambiguous utterances. 

50 And wish the well-ordered world were thrown into confusion. 

51 wrack, wreck. 

52 harness, armor. 

(a) What is the state of Macbeth's mind when the scene 
opens? (b) What do you regard as the cause of Lady 
Macbeth's death? (c) How is Macbeth affected by it? 
Does he display any grief or affection ? What is the pur- 
port of his moralizing ? (d) What news is brought by the 
messenger? (e) How does Macbeth now look upon the 
witches? — Compare line 43 with V, iii, 1-10. 

Act V. Scene VI 
2 show, appear. 

4 our first battle, the first division of our army. 
6 order, plan. 

What disposition does Malcolm make of his army? 

Act V. Scene VII 

1-2 INfacbeth likens himself to a bear being worried. Bear-bait- 
ing was a common sport in Shakespeare's time. The bear 
was fastened to a stake, and baited, or harassed, by dogs in 
successive relays. Each attack was called a course. See 
The Diary of Master William Silence, pp. 369-370. 

17 kerns applied here to the soldiers in Macbeth's army. See I, 

ii, 13. 

18 staves, spear-shafts. 

either thou. Complete the clause with " must meet me." 

20 undeeded, unused, i.e. without slaughter. 

22 bruited, noised, announced. Note the number of accents in 
the line. 

24 gently render'd, surrendered with no resistance from the garri- 
son, 



126 NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

28-29 foes That strike beside us, " foes that fight on our side ; " 
or, perhaps, " foes that intentionally strike amiss." 

(rt) In the first hand-to-hand contest who wins ? (b) What 
is iNIacduff's sole determination ? (c) How was the castle 
taken ? 

Act Y. ScexNe YIII 



1 play the Roman fool, i.e. commit suicide like Brutus or Cato. 

2 lives, living foes. 

9 intrenchant air, air that cannot be cut or that leaves no trace 
of the cut. 

12 charmed life, a life secure from harm. Macbeth so interpreted 

the prediction of the witches. 
which must not yield, which is destined not to yield. 

13 Despair, despair of. 

14 angel, fallen angel, hence evil spirit. Among the current 

names of the devil were " the cruel angel," " the angel of 
Satan," and " the angel of hell." — Scot, Divels and Spirits, 
ch. XX. 
18 my better part of man, the better part of my manhood, i.e. my 
courage. 

20 palter, equivocate. 

21 to our ear, as regards the mere words. 

22 to our hope, as regards what we hope. 
24 gaze, spectacle. 

26 Painted upon a pole, on cloth raised aloft on a pole. 

underwrit, underwritten. 
32 the last, the last throw against fate. 

34 him may be regarded as in the nominative case. The confu- 

sion in the use of the nominative and the accusative was fre- 
quent in the sixteenth century, and should in noway trouble 
the student. Certain of these forms have survived in good 
usage, as "It is me," and " Between you and I." Him may, 
however, be explained as an accusative, the expression being 
a shortened form of " Let him be daran'd." 

35 we miss, do not see here. 

36 go off, die. 

by these I see, judging by the number I see. 



ACT V. SCENE VIII 127 

40 only lived but, emphatic for lived hut. 

41 Observe the meter. Slur the e in prowess. 

42 the unshrinking station, the station from which he did not 

shrink. 
52 parted well, died nobly, 
score, debt to nature. 

54 behold, where stands, i.e. upon a pike. 

55 the time is free, the day of freedom from tyranny has come. 

56 pearl, used collectively for nobles ; perhaps suggested by the 

pearls in the crown. 

57 Who speak in their minds my congratulations. 

61 your several loves, the loyal affection each of you has shown 

me. 
66 our exiled friends abroad, our friends in exile. 
68 Producing forth, bringing from their hiding places, 

f ft) Does Macbeth at the opening of this scene think seriously 
of suicide? (5) What deters him from suicide? (c) In 
what lines does he express remorse? and for what? (d) At 
what point is he wholly disillusioned ? (e) In what spirit 
does he begin the combat with Macduff? (/) Is Shake- 
speare's management of his death more impressive than it 
would have been had Macduff slain him in view of the au- 
dience? {(j) What rumor was there in regard to the man- 
ner of Lady Macbeth 's death? Qi) Do you believe the 
rumor to have been true ? {%) How is young Siward's death 
regarded by Ross and by the boy's father ? (/ ) In what 
manner does Malcolm reward his faithful thanes? (k) 
What is Shakespeare's manner of representing a battle on 
the stage ? 



TOPICS FOR STUDY 

Now after finishing this tragedy, there' is a place for studies on 
the plot and the characters, on the sources whence the incidents 
were derived, and on the probable date of the first performance of 
Macbeth at the Globe Theater. The following observations on 
these topics lay no claim to completeness ; their purpose is to sug- 
gest something for the student to work out for himself. 

I. The Plot 

The various literary forms whose subject-matter is fictitious 
incident, differ from one another in the manner of presentation. 
The epic poem was originally a piece to be recited; it implied a 
rhapsodist and an audience. The novel is addressed to the silent 
reader. In the drama, a story is unfolded before our eyes : events, 
though really of the past, are represented as taking place now, 
and the characters become the actors whom we see. From these 
different ways of telling a story follow certain corollaries in respect 
to plot. Slight inconsistencies in structure are not easily discerni- 
ble in the epic and in the novel; for when the end is reached, we 
have forgotten the numerous details of the beginning. But in the 
drama, which we follow scene by scene on the stage, anything 
awry is detected at once, and almost as easily as a defect in the 
figure or in the reasoning of a geometrical proposition, which we 
grasp at a glance. 

Though you have read Macbeth much as you would read any 
other piece of literature, — for the habit of reading has confounded 
all forms, — you have probably kept in imagination the stage 
and the actors coming and going. How carefully the play is put 
together you cannot fail to notice, if you think of it in contrast 
with some of the novels with which you are familiar. The sequence 
of its incidents possesses the rigidity of logic.^ 

1 And yet this is not true of every detail. What scenes or parts of 
scenes contribute nothing to the action ? Why, then, are they introduced ? 
Perhaps, too, there are real inconsistencies in the statements of different 
characters. —See I, ii, 52-60 ; I, iii, 72-75 and 108-llG. 

128 



THE PLOT 129 

Moreover, the plot of a drama is simpler than that of other lit- 
erary kinds. The dramatist, in the two or three hours granted 
him, must select the most important incidents — called dramatic 
moments — in the career of his hero and bring them to the front, 
leaving to his audience to fill in by his suggestions what takes 
place in the intervals. Thus the reign of Macbeth, according to 
the chronology followed by Shakespeare, covered seventeen years. 
Shakespeare, in making a drama out of it, brushed aside many 
events, confining himself to those which bore some relation to the 
assassination of Duncan ; and even of these, he could not present 
all. The main dramatic moments of the play are Macbeth's temp- 
tation by the witches, his subsequent meeting with his wife, the 
murder of Duncan, the murder of Ban quo, the appearance of the 
ghost, the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her son, and the death 
grapple between Macbeth and Macduff. What comes between 
them is in the w\ay of explaining how these events happen. 

The simpler the plot, the more effective it is on the stage. It 
was Shakespeare's custom, as in The Merchant of Venice, to weave 
together deftly two or more stories, and to carry along with them 
scenes of low comedy to please the rabble in the yard. Macbeth 
here differs from the rest. It has but one plot, and interest is 
focused on a few characters. It contains but one comic scene — 
the Porter at the gate. For introducing this scene, Shakespeare has 
often been praised, on the ground that it furnishes a relief to the 
horror of the assassination. This is undoubtedly its effect on 
critics and philosophers ; and yet it is, I think, nothing more than 
the vulgar interlude demanded by the Elizabethan audience. 
But for it, the drama preserves throughout perfect unity of tone. 
Without it, the knocking would be equally impressive. 

Because of this simplicity and unity of plot, the play is, of 
all Shakespeare's tragedies, the most rapid in its movement. 
Macbeth is tempted to the murder of Duncan, and with a bound 
Shakespeare brings him to the deed. Banquo must be put out 
of the way; the hint is followed by the plan and its execution. 
Macbeth is told that the thane of Fife has fled to England; and 
he at once resolves on the murder of Macduff's kin. In the next 
scene, the assassins are on the stage. The retribution is equally 
swift. Macbeth has no sooner gained the throne than he is 
afflicted with terrible dreams that shake him nightly. He is soon 



130 TOPICS FOR STUDY 

besieged in his castle, and a few minutes later Macduff enters, 
bearing the head of the usurper. The drama is the work of genius 
at a white heat, and as such it should be compared with the subtle 
elaboration of Hamlet. 

For studying more in detail the action of a play, it is convenient 
to divide it into five logical sections, which do not correspond to 
the five acts ; namely, the introduction, the rising action, the 
climax, the falling action, and the catastrophe. 

The introduction explains the situation. In Macbeth it con- 
sists of the first two scenes. The first scene brings us at once into 
the mystical atmosphere which is to pervade the entire play. The 
second scene describes the brave deeds of Macbeth, the man who 
is to yield to supernatural solicitings. 

The rising action begins with the next scene and extends to 
the third scene of the third act. Macbeth, returning from his 
victories, is tempted to try for the throne, and in the attainment 
of this aim he is spurred on by the witches and Lady Macbeth. 
At length he accomplishes his main purpose. 

The climax is the turning point in the play ; that is, the place 
where the reaction sets in against the hero. It is sometimes called 
"the dramatic center." In this play it occurs in the third scene 
of the third act, where Fleance escapes. Macbeth has thus not 
fully gained what he was striving for. Distracted by fears and 
hallucinations, he loses (III, iv) his self-control; and at this point 
we know he is doomed. Whom the gods would destroy they first 
make mad. 

The falling action runs with little interruption from the banquet 
to the end of the play. Characters that in the first scenes were 
kept in the background, now come to the front, — Malcolm and 
Macduff, in whom is embodied the retribution. 

One of the most noticeable things about the falling action in 
Macbeth is Shakespeare's careful preparation for it. Many a 
drama and many a novel have been utterly spoiled by improbable 
or impossible occurrences. But says Schiller, "A dexterous use 
of accident in art, as well as in life, often brings about what is 
excellent." So skillfully has Shakespeare employed chance in the 
first half of the play, that perhaps we did not notice the incidents. 
Macbeth murders Duncan. What more natural than that Mal- 
colm should flee to England for protection and aid? Banquo is 



THE PLOT 



131 



killed. What more natural than that one of the murderers in his 
fright should put out the torch, and that Fleance, from whom is to 
proceed a line of kings, should conceal himself in the darkness? 
The first accident prepares the way for the English invasion ; the 
second frustrates all of Macbeth's plans for holding the throne. 
The one works outwardly : the other inwardly and psychologi- 
cally; and both together make for Macbeth's ruin. 

The catastrophe is the tragic end. Macbeth, like Romeo and 
Juliet, has a double catastrophe, — the death of Lady Macbeth 
and the fall of Macbeth. Li the former case there is no violence. 
The woman who planned the murder of Duncan, breaks down 
under the strain of remorse, walks in her sleep, and dies. Mac- 
beth falls in mortal combat with Macduff, the man whom he has 
most nearly wronged. The drama has now played itself nearly 
out. Malcolm is proclaimed king, and Scotland is once more in 
repose. 

The structure thus outlined may be represented by diagram : — 



Climax 




132 TOPICS FOR STUDY 



11. The Characters 

The characters in most novels and plays remain the same 
throughout. We may be hurried on from incident to incident, 
but the men and women at the close are the very ones we became 
acquainted with at the beginning. As we turn page after page, 
we may, it is true, come to know more about them ; but that is 
all. There is, we say, no development of character ; that is, 
events work no inward changes. To depict this psychological 
movement, which we all know takes place in real life, is high art. 
We have it usually in Thackeray and in George Eliot, and always 
in the great creations of Shakespeare. For example, the Lady 
Macbeth who, in the seventh scene of the first act, taunts her 
husband for his cowardice, could not have done so, in her mental 
and moral state at the close of the fourth scene of the third act. 
Again, the Macbeth who is described to us by the Sergeant and 
Ross in the second scene of the first act, could not have planned 
the slaughter of Lady Macduff and her son. There w^as only one 
time when he was quite capable of such a deed, and that was at 
the close of the first scene in the fourth act. 

Take up the play in each scene w^here jVIacbeth and Lady Mac- 
beth appear, and notice in what respects they have changed since 
they last appeared on the stage. Extend your studies to Banquo 
and Macduff. Determine the former's relation to Macbeth, ob- 
serving how Shakespeare keeps him always a man, never making 
of him a faultless monster such as most writers make of the good 
character.! And then notice how in the last part of the play 
Macduff is awakened to terrible energy of will. 

IIL Shakespeare and Holinshed 

The incidents of Macbeth w^ere taken from what once passed for 
history. In the first years of Elizabeth's reign, some London 
printers undertook a history of the world, employing for the com- 
pilation one Raphael Holinshed. The outcome, which fell short 
of the plan, was the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
which appeared in 1577. The work, enlarged by other hands, was 

1 For an excellent essay on Banquo, see Transactions of the New 
Shakspere Society for 1875-76, pp. 200-205. 



SHAKESPEARE AND HOLINSHED 133 

again printed in 1587. This latter edition, it is probable, was the 
one used by Shakespeare. Here he iound the career of Macbeth, 
the outlines of which he followed in the main. But Holinshed 
gave a meager account of Duncan's death ; and so for a murder 
scene Shakespeare had to look elsewhere. Turning back a few 
pages in the Chronicle of Scotland, he came to the details of the 
assassination of King Duff, a predecessor of Duncan ; and he took 
the most dramatic of them. That it may be seen how Shake- 
speare dramatized hist6ry, I quote that part of Holinshed which 
covers the first act of the play and a little besides — down to the 
death of Duncan. The extract is from the London reprint of 
1808. The student should notice what incidents Shakespeare 
appropriated and what he left, to what extent he compressed 
events, and particularly in what way he modified Banquo's relation 
to Macbeth. 



After IMalcolme succeeded his nephue Duncane the sonne of his 
daughter Beatrice : for Malcolme had two daughters, the one 
wliich was this Beatrice, being giuen in mariage vnto one Abba- 
nath Crinen, a man of great nobilitie, and thane of the lies and 
west parts of Scotland, bare of that mariage the foresaid Dun- 
cane ; the other called Doada, was maried vnto Sinell the thane 
of Glammis, by whom she had issue one Makbeth a valiant gentle- 
man, and one that if he had not beene somewhat cruell of nature, 
might haue beene thought most woorthie the gouernement of a 
realme. On the other part, Duncane was so soft and gentle of 
nature, that the people wished the inclinations and maners of 
these two cousins to haue beene so tempered and interchangeablie 
bestowed betwixt them, that where the one had too nuich of 
clemencie, and the other of crueltie, the meane vertue betwixt 
these two extremities might haue reigned by indifferent partition 
in them both, so should Duncane haue proued a woorthie king, 
and Makbeth an excellent capteine. The beginning of Duncans 
reigne was verie quiet and peaceable, without anie notable trouble ; 
but after it was perceiued how negligent he was in punishing 
offendors, manie misruled persons tooke occasion thereof to 
trouble the peace and quiet state of the common-wealth, by 
seditious commotions which first had their beginnings in this 
wise. 

Banquho the thane of Lochquhaber, of whom the house of the 
Stewards is descended, the which by order of linage hath now for 
a long time inioied the crowne of Scotland, euen till these our 
dales, as he gathered the finances due to the king, and further 
punished somewhat sharpelie such as were notorious offc'endors, be- 



134 TOPICS FOR STUDY 

ing assailed by a number of rebels inhabiting in that countrie, and 
spoiled of the nionie and all other things, had nmch a doo to get 
p.waie with life, after he had receiued sundrie grieuoiis wounds 
amongst them. Yet escaping their hands, after hee was somewhat 
recouered of his hurts, and was able to ride, he repaired to the 
court, where making his complaint to the king in most earnest 
w^ise, he purchased at length that the offendors were sent for by a 
sergeant at amies, to appeare to make answer vnto such matters as 
should be laid to their charge : but they augmenting their mis- 
chiefous act with a more wicked deed, after they had misused the 
messenger with sundrie kinds of reproches, they finallie slue him 
also. 

Then doubting not but for such contemptuous demeanor against 
the kings regall authoritie, they should be inuaded with all the 
power the king could make, Makdowald one of great estimation 
among them, making first a confederacie with his neerest fi-iends 
and kinsmen, tooke vpon him to be chiefe capteine of all such 
rebels as would stand against the king, in maintenance of their 
grieuous offenses latelie committed against him. Manie slanderous 
words also, and railing tants this Makdowald vttered against his 
prince, calling him a faint-hearted milkesop, more meet to gouerne 
a sort of idle moonks in some cloister, than to haue the rule of 
such valiant and hardie men of warre as the Scots were. He vsed 
also such subtill persuasions and forged allurements, that in a 
small time he had gotten togither a mightie power of men : for out 
of the westerne lies there came vnto him a great multitude of peo- 
ple, offering themselues to assist him in that rebellious quarell, and 
out of Ireland in hope of the spoile came no small number of 
Kernes and Galloglasses, offering gladlie to serue vnder him, 
whither it should please him to lead them. 

Makdowald thus hauing a mightie puissance about him, incoun- 
tered with such of the kings people as were sent against him into 
Lochquhaber, and discomfiting them, by mere force tooke their 
capteine Malcolme, and after the end of the battell smote off his 
head. This ouerthrow being notified to the king, did put him in 
woonderfull feare, by reason of his small skill in warlike affaires. 
Calling therefore his nobles to a councell, he asked of them their 
best aduise for the subduing of Makdowald & other the rebels. 
Here, in sundrie heads (as euer it happeneth) were sundrie opin- 
ions, which they vttered according to euerie man his skill. At 
length Makbetii speaking much against the kings softnes, and 
ouermuch slacknesse in punishing offendors, whereby they had 
such time to assemble togither, he promised notwithstanding, if 
the charge were committed vnto him and vnto Banquho, so to 
order the matter, that the rebels should be shortly vanquished & 
quite put downe, and that not so much as one of them should be 
found to make resistance within the countrie. 

And euen so it came to passe : for being sent foorth with a new 



SHAKESPEAKE AND HOLINSHED 135 

power, at liis eiitriiig into Lochquhaber, the fame of his comming 
put the enimies in such feare, that a great number of them stale 
secretlie awaie from their capteine Makdowald, who neuerthelesse 
inforcecl thereto, gaue battell vnto Makbeth, with the residue 
which remained with him : but being ouercome, and fleeing for 
refuge into a castell (within the which his wife & children were 
inclosed) at length when he saw how he could neither defend the 
hold anie longer against his enimies, nor yet vpon surrender be 
suffered to depart with life saued, hee first slue his wife and chil- 
dren, and lastlie himselfe, least if he had yeelded simplie, he 
should haue beene executed in most cruell wise for an example to 
other. Makbeth entring into the castell by the gates, as then set 
open, found the carcasse of ISIacdowald lieng dead there amongst 
the residue of the slaine bodies, which when he beheld, remitting 
no peece of his cruell nature with that pitifull sight, he caused the 
head to be cut off, and set vpon a poles end, and so sent it as a 
present to the king who as then laie at Bertha. The headlesse 
trunke he commanded to bee hoong vp vpon an high paire of gal- 
lowes. 

Them of the westerne lies suing for pardon, in that they had 
aided Makdowald in his tratorous enterprise, he fined at great 
sums of monie : and those whonie he tooke in Lochquhaber, being- 
come thither to beare armor against the king, he put to execution. 
Hervpon the Ilandmen coneeiued a deadlie grudge towards him, 
calling him a couenant-breaker, a bloudie tyrant, & a ci'uell mur- 
therer of them whome the kings mercie had pardoned. With which 
reprochfull words Makbeth being kindled in wrathfull ire against 
them, had passed ouer with an armie into the lies, to haue taken 
reuenge vpon them for their liberall talke, had he not heene other- 
wise persuaded by some of his friends, and partlie pacified by gifts 
presented vnto him on the behalfe of the Ilandmen, seeking to 
auoid his displeasure. Thus was iustice and law" restored againe 
to the old accustomed course, by the diligent means of Makbeth. 
Immediatlie wherevpon woord came that Sueno king of Norway 
was arriued in Fife with a puissant armie, to subdue the whole 
realme of Scotland. . . . 

The crueltie of this Sueno was such, that he neither spared man, 
woman, nor child, of what age, condition or degree soeuer they 
were. Whereof when K. Duncane was certified, he set all slouth- 
full and lingering delaies apart, and began to assemble an armie in 
most speedie wise, like a verie valiant capteine : for oftentimes it 
happeneth, that a dull coward and slouthfull person, constreined 
by necessitie, becommeth verie bardie and actiue. Therefore when 
his whole power was come togither, he diuided the same into three 
battels. The first was led by Makbeth, the second by Banquho, & 
the king himselfe gouerned in the maine battell or middle ward, 
wherein were appointed to attend and wait vpon his person the 
most part of all the residue of the Scotish nobilitie. 



136 TOPICS FOR STUDY 

The armie of Scotislimen being thus ordered, came vnto Cuh-os, 
wliere incountering with the enimies, after a sore and cruell 
foLighten battell, Sueno remained victoiious, and ]\Ialcohne with his 
Scots discomfited. Howbeit the Danes were so broken by this 
battell, that they were not able to make long chase on their eni- 
mies, but kept themselues all night in order of battell, for doubt 
least the Scots assembling togither againe, might haue set vpon 
them at some aduantage. On the morrow, when the fields were 
discouered, and that it was perceiued how no enimies were to be 
found abrode, they gathered the spoile, which they diuided 
amongst them, according to the law of amies. Then was it or- 
deined by commandement of Sueno, that no souldier should hurt 
either man, woman, or child, except such as were found with 
weapon in hand readie to make resistance, for he hoped now to 
conquer the realnie without further bloudshed. 

But when knowledge was giuen how Duncane was fled to the 
castell of Bertha, and that Makbeth was gathering a new power to 
withstand the incursions of the Danes, Sueno raised his tents, & 
comming to the said castell, laid a strong siege round about it. 
Duncane seeing himselfe thus enuironed by his enimies, sent a se- 
cret message by counsell of Banquho to Makbeth, commanding him 
to abide at Inchcuthill, till he heard from him some other newes. 
In the meane time Duncane fell in fained communication with 
Sueno, as though he would haue yeelded vp the castell into his 
hands, vnder certeine conditions, and this did he to driue time, and 
to put his enimies out of all suspicion of anie enterprise ment 
against them, till all things were brought to passe that ndght serue 
for the purpose. At length, when they were fallen at a point for 
rendring vp the hold, Duncane offered to send foorth of the castell 
into the campe greate prouision of vittels to refresh the arnde, 
which offer was gladlie accepted of the Danes, for that they had 
beene in great penurie of sustenance manie dales before. 

The Scots heerevpon tooke the iuice of mekilwoort berries, and 
mixed the same in their ale and bread, sending it thus spiced & 
confectioned, in great abundance vnto their enimies. They re- 
ioising that they had got meate and drinke sufficient to satisfie 
their bellies, fell to eating and drinking after such greedie wise, 
that it seemed they stroue who might deuoure and swallow vp 
most, till the operation of the berries spread in such sort through 
all the parts of their bodies, that they were in the end brought into 
a fast dead sleepe, that in manner it was vnpossible to awake 
them. Then foorthwith Duncane sent vnto Makbeth, command- 
ing him wdth all diligence to come and set vpon the enimies, being 
in easie point to be ouercome. Makbeth making no delaie, came 
with his people to the place, where his enimies were lodged, and 
first killing the watch, afterwards entered the campe, and made 
such slaughter on all sides without anie resistance, that it was a 
woonderfull matter to behold, for the Danes were so heauie of 



SIIAKESrEAKE AND HOLINSHED 137 

sleepe, that the most part of them were slaine and neiier sth'red : 
other that were awakened either by the noise or other waies foorth, 
were so amazed and dizzie headed"^ vpon their wakening, that they 
were not able to make anie defense : so that of the whole number 
there escaped no more but onelie Sueno himselfe and ten other 
persons, l)y whose helpe he got to his ships lieng at rode in the 
mouth of Taie. 

The most part of the mariners, when they heard what plentie of 
meate and drinke the Scots had sent vnto the campe, came from 
the sea thither to be partakers thereof, and so were slaine amongst 
their fellowes : by meanes whereof when Sueno perceiued how 
through lacke of mariners he should not be able to conueie awaie 
his nauie, he furnished one ship throughlie with such as were left, 
and in the same sailed backe into Norwaie, cursing the time that 
he set forward on this infortunate iournie. The otlier ships which 
he left behind him, within three dales after his departure from 
thence, were tossed so togither by violence of an east wind, that 
beating and rushing one against another, they sunke there, and lie 
in the same place euen vnto these dales, to the great danger of 
other such ships as come on that coast : for being couered with the 
floud when the tide commeth, at the ebbing againe of the same, 
some part of them appeere aboue water. 

The place where the Danish vessels were thus lost, is yet called 
Drownelow sands. This ouerthrow receiued in manner afore said 
by Sueno, was verie displeasant to him and his people, as should 
appeere, in that it was a custome manie yeeres after, that no 
knights w^ere made in Norwaie, except they were first sworne to 
reuenge the slaughter of their countriemen and friends thus slaine 
in Scotland. The Scots hauing woone so notable a victorie, after 
they had gathered & diuided the spoile of the field, caused solemne 
processions to be made in all places of the realme, and thanks to be 
giuen to almightie God, that had sent them so faire a day oner 
their enimies. But whilest the people were thus at their proces- 
sions, woord was brought that a new fleet of Danes was arriued at 
Kingcorne, sent thither by Canute king of England, in reuenge of 
his brother Suenos ouerthrow. To resist these enimies, which were 
alreadie landed, and busie in spoiling the countrie ; Makbeth and 
Banquho were sent with the kings authoritie, who hauing with 
them a conuenient power, incountred the enindes, slue part of them, 
and chased the otlier to their ships. They that escaped and got 
once to their ships, obteined of Makbeth for a great summe of 
gold, that such of their friends as were slaine at this last bicker- 
ing, might be buried in saint Colmes Inch. In memorie whereof, 
manie old sepultures are yet in the said Inch, there to be seene 
grauen with the amies of the Danes, as the maner of burieng 
noble men still is, and heeretofore hath beene vsed. 

A peace was also concluded at the same time betwixt the Danes 
and Scotishmen, ratified (as some haue written) in this wise : 



lo8 Tories FOR STUDY 

That from thencefoorth the Danes should iieiier come into Scotland 
to make anie warres against the Scots by anie maner of meanes. 
And these were the warres that Duncane had with forren enimies, 
in the seuenth veere of his reigne. Shortlie after happened a 
strange and vncouth woonder, wliich afterward was tlie cause of 
much trouble in the realme of Scotland, as ye shall after heare. 
It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho iournied towards Fores, 
where the king then laie, they went sporting by the waie togither 
without other companie, saue onelie themselues, passing thorough 
the woods and fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a laund, 
there met them three women in strange and wild apparell, resem- 
bling creatures of elder world, whome when they attentiuelie beheld, 
woondering much at the sight, the first of them spake and said ; 
'All haile Makbeth, thane of Glammis ' (for he had latelie 
entered into that dignitie and office by the death of his father 
Sinell). The second of them said; 'Haile Makbeth thane of 
Cawder.' But the third said; 'All haile Makbeth that heereafter 
shaft be king of Scotland.' 

Then Banquho ; ' What manner of women (saith he) are you, 
that seeme so little fauourable vnto me, whereas to my fellow 
heere, besides high offices, ye assigne also the kingdome, appointing 
foorth nothing for me at all ? ' ' Yes (saith the first of them) we 
promise greater benefits vnto thee, than vnto him, for he shall 
reigne in deed, but with an vnluckie end : neither shall he leaue 
anie issue behind him to succeed in his place, where contrarilie 
thou in deed shalt not reigne at all, but of thee those shall be borne 
which shall gouern the Scotish kingdome by long order of con- 
tinuall descent.' Herewith the foresaid women vanished imme- 
diatlie out of their sight. This was reputed at the first but some 
vaine fantasticall illusion by Mackbeth and Banquho, insomuch 
that Banquho would call Mackbeth in iest, king of Scotland ; and 
Mackbeth againe would call him in sport likewise, the father of 
manie kings. But afterwards the common opinion was, that 
these women were either the Aveird sisters, that is (as ye would 
say) the goddesses of destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, 
indued with knowledge of prophesie by their necromanticall 
science, bicause euerie thing came to passe as they had spoken. 
For shortlie after, the thane of Cawder being condemned at Fores 
of treason against the king committed; his lands, linings, and 
offices were giuen of the kings liberalitie to Mackbeth. 

The same night after, at supper, Banquho iested with him and 
said ; ' Now Mackbeth thou hast obteined those things which the 
two former sisters prophesied, there remaineth onelie for thee 
to purchase that which the third said should come to passe.' 
Wherevpon Mackbeth reuoluing the thing in his mind, began euen 
then to deuise how he might atteine to the kingdome : but yet he 
thought with himself e that he must tarie a time, which should 
aduance him thereto (by the diuine prouidence) as it had come to 



SHAKESPEARE AND HOLINSHED 139 

passe in his former preferment. But shortlie after it chanced that 
king Duncane, hauing two sonnes by his wife which was the 
daughter of Siward earle of Northumberland, he made the elder 
of them called Malcoline prince of Cumberland, as it were thereby 
to appoint him his successor in the kingdonie, inimediatlie after 
his deceasse. Mackbeth sore troubled herewith, for that he saw 
by this means his hope sore hindered (where, by the old lawes of 
the realnie, the ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were 
not of able age to take the charge vpon himselfe, he that was next 
of bloud vnto him should be admitted) he began to take counsell 
how he miglit vsurpe the kingdome by force, hauing a iust quarell 
so to doo (as he tooke the matter) for that Duncane did what in 
him lay to defraud him of all maner of title and claime, which he 
might in time to come, pretend vnto the crowne. 

The woords of the three w^eird sisters also (of whom before ye 
haue heard) greatlie incou raged him herevnto, but speciallie his 
wife lay sore vpon him to attempt the thing, as she that was verie 
ambitious, burning in vnquenchable desire to beare the name of a 
queene. At length therefore, communicating his purposed intent 
with his ti'ustie friends, amongst whom Banquho was the chiefest, 
vpon confidence of their promised aid, he slue the king at Enuerns, 
or (as some say) at Botgosuane, in the sixt yeare of his reigne. 

Holinshed's story of Macbeth has all the dates and circumstance 
of authentic history ; and, indeed, there is a basis for it in fact. 
The historical Macbeth ^ had a share in the murder of Duncan; 
Siward, the Earl of Northumberland, invaded Scotland and defeated 
him ; and Malcolm, a son of Duncan, was placed upon the throne. 
But Macbeth was conspicuous not so much for his crimes as for 
his virtues. " All genuine Scottish tradition," says Freeman, 
" points to the reign of Macbeth as a period of unusual peace and 
prosperity in that disturbed land." In his dates, Holinshed is not 
far from the truth. Duncan, according to him, was murdered in 
1040. This or 1039 is the date given by the modern historian. 
Siward, says Holinshed, invaded Scotland in 1057 ; and Macbeth 
was killed in single combat with Macduff. History tells the story 
somewhat differently. Siward defeated Macbeth in a pitched 
battle on July 27, 1054. Macbeth escaped, but three years later 
he was again defeated, and this time he was slain. Most of the 
accessories of Holinshed are legendary; and two of them — the 

1 For the historical Macbeth, see The Norman Conquest, E. A. Free- 
man, Chap. VII, § 2, and Chap. IX, §2; and History of Scotland, P. H. 
Brown, Bk. II, Chap. I. 



140 TOPICS FOR STUDY 

moving wood and the man not born of woman — are folk stories 
of great antiquity. In brief, Macbeth, as we have it in Holinshed 
and in Shakespeare, is history decorated with popular fiction. It 
is therefore not to be classed with the so-called " histories," of 
which Henry the Fifth is the type. 

IV. Date of Composition 

Of the thirty-seven plays written wholly or in part by Shake- 
speare, sixteen were ]3ublished separately during the dramatist's 
lifetime, — and most of them apparently without his cooi^eration 
or even his consent, — in small thin volumes known as the quartos. 
Six years after Shakespeare's death, Othello appeared for the first 
time in the same unpretentious form. Early in 1623, an attempt 
was made to bring together in one volume all the plays then 
thought to have been written by Shakespeare. The enterprise 
was undertaken and carried through slowly by a small group of 
London publishers and printers, with the aid of two of Shake- 
speare's friends and fellow-actors, John Heming and Henry 
Condell. This first edition of Shakespeare's plays, known as the 
First Folio, contains thirty-six dramas ; all, excepting Pericles, 
that criticism now usually attributes to Siiakespeare. Thus, but 
for this literary venture, more than half of Shakespeare's pieces 
might have been lost to us; and among them. As You Like It, 
Julius Ccesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Macbeth. 

For the text of Macbeth the editors must have had at hand only 
a very imperfect transcript, probably nothing more than an 
actor's copy : for the verse in many places is mutilated beyond 
emendation ; there are inconsistences in the plot ; there are inter- 
polations by a second-rate playwright, and only in the third scene 
of the fourth act do we find the elaboration so common with 
Shakespeare. The tragedy, great and tremendous as it is, certainly 
was not printed as it came from the master's hand. 

The Folio of 1623, of course, gives no clew to the date of compo- 
sition. But this date may be determined within certain limits. 
Scotch in scene, characters, and superstition, Macbeth is beyond 
doubt a graceful compliment to James the First. As king of 
Scotland, he had been invested with the royal office at Scone ; as 
king of England, he was crowned at Westminster on the 25th of 



BATE OF COMPOSITION 141 

July, 1003. The next year, on the 24th of October, he was pro- 
claimed King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland. To these 
events there is undoubted allusion in IV, i, 121, whei-e Macbeth 
sees, in the magic glass, kings 

" That two-fold balls and treble sceptres carry." 

Macbeth, then, was probably written after October 24, 1604. 

We may also determine the date before which it was written ; for 
there is preserved a brief description of an early performance at 
Shakespeare's own theater. Dr. Simon Forman, a London quack 
and astrologer, who visited the playhouses for instruction, has an 
entry in his diary which begins in this way : — 

In Mackbeth at the glob, 16jO, the 20 of Aprill, ther was to be 
obserued, firste, howe Mackbeth and Bancko, 2 noble men of Scot- 
land, Ridinge thorowe a wod, the[r] stod before them 3 women 
feiries or T^imphes, And saluted Mackbeth, sayinge, 3 tyms vnto 
him, haille mackbeth, king of Codon ; for thou shalt be a kinge, 
but shalt beget No kinge, &c. then said Bancko, what all to mack- 
beth And nothing to me. Yes, said the nimphes, haille to thee 
Banko, thou shalt beget kinge.s^, yet be no kinge. ^ 

Macbeth, therefore, was written between the autumn of 1004 and 
the spring of 1610. 

Attempts have been made to move these dates nearer together. 
The evidence brought forward for this purpose is, when regarded 
piecemeal, by no means convincing ; but taken all together, it has 
some weight. The Porter's "farmer, that hanged himself on th' 
expectation of plenty," is thought to refer to the abundant har- 
vests of 1606. Again, the " equivocator, that could swear in both 
the scales against either scale," seems to point to the defense of 
equivocation made by the Jesuit Henry Garnett, who was tried, 
March 28, 1606, for complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, and was 
executed May 3, 1606. But from the allusions of a clown, though 
the incidents to which they point are reasonably clear, it is not 
safe to infer the time of composition ; for they were often prepared 
to fit some special performance of a play, which might not be the 
first. Indeed, some editors insist that the Porter scene is, through- 
out, an interpolation. 

1 The quotation is taken from Transactions of the New Shakspere So- 
ciety, for 1875-76, pp. 417-418. 



142 TOPICS FOR STUDY 

More noteworthy than these questionable indications of date, is 
the well-authenticated account of a sort of interlude or triumph in 
honor of King James, on his visit to Oxford in August, 1605. As 
he approached the gates of St. John's College, three students, in 
the manner of three sibyls coming from a wood, addressed him in 
Latin. ^ They hailed him as a descendant of Banquo, as the king 
who had united Scotland, England, and Ireland, and as ruler over 
(xreat Britain, Ireland, and France. There is no way of determin- 
ing whether this Oxford performance preceded or followed Shake- 
speare's Macbeth; but that there is a link in the way of suggestion 
between them, is certainly very probable. 

On account of these and other considerations, especially the 
versification, critics are now inclined to assign the composition 
and first presentation of Macbeth to 1605 or 1606. 

What allusions, besides the one I have cited, are there in the 
play to James the First? 

For verse tests, the student may consult Dowden's Shalspere 
Primer, pp. 39-46. .A more extended account of them may be 
found in Transactions of the New Shakspere Society, 1874, pp. 442- 
451 ; and in Englische Studien, Vol. Ill, pp. 473-504 (the discus- 
sion is in English). 

1 For the text of this performance, see The Neio Varioruni edition of 
Macbeth, by H. H. Furness, p. 378-379. 



TEST QUESTIONS 143 



TEST QUESTIONS 

[The following questions are taken, with slight modifications, from a 
large number of recent examination papers set for students entering col- 
lege.] 

I. To what period of Shakespeare's work does Macbeth belong? 
When was it first published? 

II. What are the literary sources of the play ? How does Shake- 
speare use this material ? 

TIL What is the real climax of the plot? What are the turn- 
ing points (dramatic moments) of the plot, and in what acts do 
they occur? What comic scene in the play? 

IV. Why are the witches introduced at the opening of the play? 
What is the first reference to Macbeth's murderous intent? What 
bearing upon subsequent events has the witches' threefold salu- 
tation of Macbeth as " thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor, and king 
to be hereafter"? In what way is Macbeth's decision to proceed 
no further in the business of killing Duncan overborne by Lady 
Macbeth? What is the retribution for Macbeth, and for Lady 
Macbeth ? Where, in each case, does retribution begin ? 

V. Make a character sketch of Macbeth, illustrating every trait 
by reference to the play. — Use verbal quotations so far as possible. 
Describe the character of Macbeth : («) just before the play 
begins; (h) in Act III; (c) in Act V. Give two sides to Mac- 
beth's character, and illustrate by his actions. What is the ruling 
motive of Lady Macbeth's character? Contrast Macbeth and 
Lady Macbeth. Sketch the characters of Banquo; of Macduff; of 
Malcolm. 

VI. Write four quotations, giving the speaker and the circum- 
stances in which the words are spoken. 

" That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face ! 
If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, 
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 
5 Are hired to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, 
I sheathe again vndeeded. There thou shouldst be ; 
By this great clatter, one of greatest note 
Seems bruited: let me find him, fortune! 
10 And more I beg not." 



144 TOPICS FOR STUDY 

By whom are these words spoken? Give a brief account of the 
situation indicated in the lines. What is the reference in My ivife 
and childrefi's (jhosfs loill haunt me still ? Comment on all italicized 
words. What is the grammatical construction of thou in line 5? 

VII. In what meter is Macbeth written ? Is all the verse in the 
same meter? What parts of the play are written in prose? Scan 
lines 5 and 7 in the passage quoted above. Reduce the following 
to proper metrical form : — 

"Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck till thou applaud 
the deed come seeling night scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day 
and with thy bloody and invisible hand cancel and tear to pieces 
that great bond which keeps me pale." 



JUl! 



LB "30 



